Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - March 4, 2009 - (Page 10) Andrew Witty: the knight in shining pharma? Amelia Tope looks at how GSK’s plans to slash drug prices and pursue an open innovation policy on neglected diseases could affect the industry. o the public at large, having announced that GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is to slash its prices in the poorest countries, CEO Andrew Witty looks like quite the knight in shining armour. But GSK has put its rivals in a difficult position. They can either refuse to follow suit and look like the evil corporate giants of public imagination, or follow Witty’s lead and risk the wrath of their shareholders. Either way, there could be (even more) difficult times ahead in pharma boardrooms across the world. Generics firms will also be shaken by the move. The generics industry may have always prided itself as a saviour of the poor, but GSK’s announcement means the company is now positioning itself firmly in generics territory. It is proposing to cut its prices for all drugs in the fifty least developed countries to no more than 25% of the levels in the UK and the US. It also intends to make drugs more affordable in middle-income countries such as Brazil and India. T Even more radically — and in what could be a response to calls for ‘open innovation’ of the kind we heard at last month’s Economist Pharma Summit — GSK is offering to put into a ‘patent pool’ chemicals or processes geared to the development of neglected diseases, over which it has intellectual property rights, so that they can be explored by other researchers. Witty laid out these plans to the UK Guardian. “I think it’s the first time anybody’s really come out and said we’re prepared to start talking to people about pooling our patents to try and facilitate innovation in areas where, so far, there hasn’t been much progress,” he said. “Some people might be surprised it’s coming from a pharma company. Obviously people see us as very defensive of intellectual property — quite rightly — and we will be, but in this area of neglected diseases, we just think … we can kind of carve out a space and see whether or not we can stimulate a different behaviour.” Witty’s final blow was that GSK intends to reinvest 20% of any profits it makes in the least developed countries in hospitals, clinics and staff. Perhaps this is one area where generics could compete? Watch this space. A dent in the armour There is one area, however, where GSK is not prepared to be quite so free with its profits: it doesn’t intend to include HIV drugs in the patent pool. This has led Michelle Childs, director of policy and advocacy at Médecins sans Frontières, to comment: “[Witty] is saying there is no need for a patent pool for HIV. Our position is that there is an urgent need … because of the rising prices of new first and second line drugs for patients who develop resistance.” So the campaigners will continue to condemn the drug companies for failing to drop HIV drug prices and for defending the patents that keep those prices up. For that situation to change, we may have to wait for a knight even braver than Andrew Witty. 2 FROM THE EDITOR / NEWS 3 11 PHARMA MBAs NEWS 6 BIO-ENTREPRENEUR SCHOOL 8 SALES FORCE EFFECTIVENESS 10 GSK’S PRICE CUTS 13 CALENDAR 14 ON THE MOVE Colin Anderson/Getty Images
Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - March 4, 2009 Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - March 4, 2009 Contents From the Editor Training and Development Sales Opinion Calendar On the Move Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - March 4, 2009 Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - March 4, 2009 - Contents (Page 1) Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - March 4, 2009 - From the Editor (Page 2) Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - March 4, 2009 - Training and Development (Page 3) Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - March 4, 2009 - Training and Development (Page 4) Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - March 4, 2009 - Training and Development (Page 5) Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - March 4, 2009 - Training and Development (Page 6) Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - March 4, 2009 - Training and Development (Page 7) Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - March 4, 2009 - Sales (Page 8) Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - March 4, 2009 - Sales (Page 9) Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - March 4, 2009 - Opinion (Page 10) Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - March 4, 2009 - Opinion (Page 11) Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - March 4, 2009 - Opinion (Page 12) Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - March 4, 2009 - Calendar (Page 13) Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - March 4, 2009 - On the Move (Page 14)
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