GlaxoSmithKline as a Model of Corporate Responsibility

Face value | The nimble sumo | Economist.com:

"GSK's attitudes toward the poor are now regarded as a model for others. The firm encourages generics-makers to produce its formulations, so costs can fall further. It offers tiered pricing, linking the price of drugs to a country's ability to pay and offering subsidies for the poorest. Even the World Health Organisation, a United Nations agency not known for cosiness with the pharmaceutical industry, applauded GSK's decision in June to donate 50m doses of its new flu vaccine to be held in an emergency stockpile. This transformation, of both GSK and of its boss, suggests there is hope yet for the pharmaceutical industry. “Society puts up with Big Pharma only because we come up with innovative drugs,” says Mr Garnier. The world desperately needs a self-confident drugs industry willing to take risks to discover new therapies, but will no longer tolerate its arrogance and neglect of the poor."