PHM-Exch> Africa medicines charity partnership

[Claudio Schuftan]

GlaxoSmithKline launches Africa charity partnership
  New medicines will be sold at cost price with any profits reinvested in
research
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 Britain's biggest drug manufacturer has launched a new
partnership<http://www.gsk.com/partnerships/save-the-children-partnership.html>with
Save the Children to develop medicines to tackle child mortality in
Africa.

GlaxoSmithKline and the charity said together they could save a million
children's lives.

Save the Children chief executive Justin Forsyth said there was the
potential for "huge gains".

But critics are wary about the close involvement of a pharmaceutical
company in charitable work.
Stop infection

Save the Children admitted that its alliance with GlaxoSmithKline would be
controversial - but said the project would save children's lives.

For example, a formula for mouthwash will be turned into a gel that can be
applied to the umbilical cords of babies to stop infection.

The new medicines will be sold at cost price.

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) said the partnership would set a new standard for how
companies and charities could work together.

Initially, two flagship programmes will operate in DR Congo and Kenya.

These will be followed by other initiatives in Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and
Latin America.
BBC international development correspondent Naomi Grimley said critics
questioned whether the pharmaceutical giant was just after good publicity -
and access to emerging economies that would spend more on drugs in the
future.
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