We all fill a number of interesting and very important roles here at GSK as we discover and develop life-saving medicines, and make sure these medicines end up in the hands of the people who need them.  I love my job!

That being said, I envy what some of my colleagues do on a day-to-day basis, like my friend Sue who coordinates our product donations. 

Sue never has any two days that look alike. She has the opportunity and challenge of her workday being turned completely upside down by events in the news--in a way international news rarely affects mine.

When a humanitarian disaster occurs, Sue is one of the first people to respond to the call. We are prepared to respond to disasters, along with our five main US partners:  AmeriCares, Direct Relief, InterChurch Medical Assistance, MAP International and Project HOPE, because of the excellent internal management of people like Sue.

Though there are similar programs out there, our product donation program is unique. A few differences set our program apart. For example, we commit to donating products with a shelf-life of a year or more.  We also include our product donations in the same production plan as our for-profit stock. We account for these donations at the production price as opposed to wholesale costs.

Ethical Performance magazine recently highlighted Sue and the Product Donations Program. Click to read more.

Seated from left: Salim Abdulla, Tanzanian PI; Joe Cohen (at microphone); Christian Loucq, PATH MVI; Regina Rabinovitch, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

I'm particularly excited because today we're launching ViiV Healthcare, a worldwide HIV specialist company resulting from a combined effort by GSK and Pfizer.  

In my various roles at GSK, I've had some very interesting windows through which I've been able to view our HIV business.   In the beginning--before I worked in HIV--I looked at the disease as so many people do.   I only knew what I read in newspapers and had a very third-person, far removed perspective. 

But that changed a year ago when I joined GSK's HIV communications team and learned about the real impact of this disease.  I became much more passionate about disease prevention, awareness, education, and treatment.  Soon I was attending HIV congresses and meetings, and learning more directly about how this disease affects people.

I could see the sense of urgency in their eyes when they talked about HIV treatments, and their hopes for ever-better treatments in the future.  Suddenly, HIV was a whole lot more real to me, and I was more passionate than ever about working in this arena. 

Now GSK and Pfizer are launching ViiV Healthcare, which seeks to address important issues such as the need for innovative research and improved access for patients. 

The central proposition behind ViiV Healthcare is extremely exciting:  a robust HIV company with a solid pipeline and deep expertise, but structured to be a smaller and more nimble organization that can respond faster to the changing needs of HIV patients. 

I wish everyone at ViiV Healthcare the very best in their new venture.  They're doing something that I believe will have a significant impact on how we deal with HIV across the globe.  And how can you not be excited by something like that?

Health reform took a step forward yesterday as the House of Representatives released a new healthcare reform bill, H.R. 3962 Affordable Health Care for America Act.

When announcing the new bill, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) compared the measure to the creation of Social Security in 1935, and to the 1965 enactment of Medicare and Medicaid.

The bill clocks in at an incredible 1,990 pages demonstrating that a 21^st century overhaul of America's health system is no small task. Support among House Democrats for the new bill seems to be growing, but House Republicans remain opposed. The bill could hit the House floor for consideration as early as November 5.

To learn more about how a bill becomes a law, click here.

(Image courtesy of the The American Constitution Society for Law and Policy.)

More than two-thirds of Americans are either overweight or obese.

That statistic still amazes me even though I am confronted by it daily in my role leading the U.S. Consumer Healthcare Behavioral Sciences business. So I was anxious to arrive in Washington, DC, this week for Obesity 2009, to hear the latest news and research from the obesity field's most eminent researchers, physicians, nutritionists and other experts. And I wasn't disappointed.

Hosted by the North American Association for the Study of Obesity, this annual conference is recognized as the largest and most comprehensive program in the field of obesity. I joined more than 2,500 people from a variety of backgrounds who shared an extreme passion to help reverse the growing obesity epidemic.

The sharing of information began with an insightful keynote address on how learnings from smoking cessation can be applied to weight control by Dr. William H. Dietz, MD, PhD, Director of the Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity and Obesity for the Centers for Disease Control. This confirms the opportunity for cross pollination that we've recognized at GSK for many years and was the basis for aligning both weight control and smoking cessation under the Behavioral Sciences businesses I manage.

Discussions continued around the need for a surround-sound approach to support consumers as they lose weight. This includes new technology, new food labels and restaurant policies to educate consumers about nutrition, the importance of changing food habits and other support programs and tools.

Researchers, including GSK, also highlighted findings about the different types of fat and the concept of good fat/bad fat and how to maintain the good and reduce the bad--not unlike what we saw years ago as the understanding of cholesterol advanced.

Obesity 2009 made clear that consumers who want to lose weight are not alone in their journey.

(Image courtesy of The Endocrine Society.)