Donation Programs:
GlaxoSmithKline

About GlaxoSmithKline

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is headquartered in the United Kingdom with operations based in the US. The company employs more than 100,000 people worldwide and in 2001, had sales of $29.5 billion dollars and before tax profits of $8.8 billion dollars. The pharmaceutical giant has 104 manufacturing sites in more than 40 countries. GSK's mission is "to improve the quality of human life by enabling people to do more, feel better and live longer".

Corporate Giving

GSK supports it mission statement through its involvement in programs for better health in the UK and the world. It supports many local and national programs and plays an active role in addressing issues relating to global health.

International Essential Medicines Donation Programs

A visit to GSK's website offers a great deal of information about the company's philosophy towards global health inequities, private-public partnerships and the programs its supports. The company's statement about solving global health issues indicates that it has a defined role. As found as its website:

GSK believes that tackling the problem is a shared responsibility, involving the country concerned, international governments, non-government organizations, the private sector and affected communities.

The company takes an active part in two major international programs to eradicate diseases unknown in developing countries - lymphatic filariasis and malaria.

GSK is a partner in the Global Alliance to Eliminate Lymphatic Filariasis, (www.gsk.com/filariasis/index.htm). The disease, also known as elephantiasis, causes swelling of the limbs, breasts or genitals with thickening of the skin, and other grotesque manifestations.

Here are some facts provided by the GSK website:

• Lymphatic filariasis (LF), commonly known as elephantiasis, is a disabling and disfiguring tropical disease caused by thread-like worms (filariae) that live in the human lymphatic system.
• It mainly affects people in tropical and sub-tropical areas of Africa, Asia and the Americas. Around 120 million people are affected by LF, with more than one billion people at risk of infection.
• The goals of the Global Alliance to Eliminate LF are to interrupt transmission of LF, country by country, until LF has been eliminated as a public health problem.
• GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) supports the alliance by donating its antiparasitic drug albendazole and through help with coalition-building, planning, training and communications initiatives.

The Global Alliance to Eliminate Lymphatic Filariasis is one of the ways that GSK is involved in improving access to essential medicines.

A second major program in which GSK is a partner is the GlaxoSmithKline African Malaria Partnership that aims to develop effective malarial control behaviors in African communities.

The GSK website provides the following information about malaria and this partnership:

• Around 40 per cent of the world's population are at risk from malaria and every year up to 3 million people, the majority of them children under 5 years, die as a result of the disease.
• 90 per cent of the 300-500 million cases of malaria that occur each year are in Africa.
• Through the African Malaria Partnership, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) aims to support communities through the scale-up of effective behavioral development activities whose primary focus is malaria control.
• The GlaxoSmithKline African Malaria Partnership will award grants totaling US$ 1.5 million over three years to selected behavioral development programs.

According to GSK, the African Malaria Partnerships is designed to bridge the gap between successful pilot programs and wider scale implementation. More information about this partnership is available at www.gsk.com/malaria/index.htm.

Please visit the GlaxoSmithKline website to learn more about the company and its private-public partnerships to improve global health.

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