A year ago I gave a speech at Harvard setting out a new vision for GSK as a catalyst for change, building on the critically important work we are doing in the world's poorest countries, but going much further. I committed to cutting prices of our patented medicines in the least developed countries to no more than 25% the price in Europe; participating in a "patent pool" for neglected tropical diseases (NTDs); reinvesting 20% of our profits from the least developed countries back into strengthening healthcare in those same countries; and being more open, collaborative and accessible in terms of our R&D organization and its infrastructure in a bid to create more energy behind drug discovery for NTDs. (You can read more in the coverage from The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg and The Guardian (UK)).
Today, I am giving a speech at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York to give an update on our progress, and how we as a company are evolving our business model to help the world's poorest nations. We have a simple philosophy: be a partner in addressing the healthcare challenges in the world's poorest countries--no matter how difficult they are. We are a restless company--never satisfied with what we've achieved, but always looking for innovative ways of doing more.
In the last year, we've put in place a strategy to achieve our ambition of being a more open, collaborative and accessible company, deeply committed to R&D and access to innovation in NTDs.
GSK is ready and willing to play our part in tackling the really difficult public health issues around the world. Whether we're sharing compounds from our library or making the world's first malaria vaccine accessible, our goal is the same: to find solutions. To do that GSK will become more open and flexible; we will find new business models to expand access to medicines; we will continue to be a partner in delivering solutions in all the communities where we work.
It's part of our values--and later today, and over the next few days, I will be blogging about how we are achieving these goals.
GSK your vision is to be commended and applauded. To consider the needs of our developing countries and in particular tropic diseases will bring you to the forefront of success in medical research. Not only that you will be viewed as saint like in these countries where tropical illness is the single cause of death or serious illness.