CONTACT: Asia Russell 215-731-1844

Glaxo SmithKline, the mammoth drug company-to-be resulting from the merger of Glaxo Wellcome and SmithKline Beechamis the largest pharmaceutical company in the world. Glaxo SmithKline (GSK) will control 7.3 per cent of the global pharmaceutical market and over a third of the HIV antiretroviral market -- when the merger is complete.

The combined capitalization of Glaxo Wellcome and SmithKline Beecham $189 billionis more than the resources of most third world countries. This merger will further consolidate the pharmaceutical industry, and will surely threaten the development of desperately needed, but less profitable, new drugs to treat and prevent the diseases of poor people around the world, including HIV/AIDS, malaria, and multi-drug resistant tuberculosis.

A planned restructuring of the merged Glaxo SmithKline (Financial Times, 11/12/00) will would encourage economic competition between different sectors of the drug company giant, threatening development of much needed but less profitable drugs.

GSK makes many drugs that treat HIV and its complications and is one of the most vocal drug companies involved in the much-hyped "Big Five" HIV medication price cut deal announced by UNAIDS in May 2000.

But what was GSK's first action regarding access to medication in Africa after their promise in May to make AIDS medication more accessible to the poor of the world? Stealing affordable drugs from dying Africans. GSK threatened legal action against a generic producer, Cipla (Mubai, India) in early August 2000. Cipla was selling $16,000 worth of a generic version of GSK's Combivir at greatly reduced cost to people with AIDS in Ghana. Duovir, Cipla’s product, costs $0.90, while the US price for Combivir is $10.00.

(See Médecins Sans Frontières Pricing report, released July 2000: http://www.accessmed-msf.org/msf/accessmed/accessmed.nsf/html/4DTSR2?OpenDocument)

GSK claims that Cipla’s sales of the generic drug to Ghana violated GSK’s patent rights to Combivir in Ghana. But because GSK filed for several patents relevant to Combivir before Ghanaian patent law recognized patents on medication, it is likely that GSK’s claim to patent rights to Combivir are completely invalid.

Whether or not GSK’s patent claims are valid, the entire African continent constitutes only 1.3% of the multi billion dollar global pharmaceutical market. GSK’s actions against desperate countries must be stopped. In 2000, the US market alone for Combivir was worth $478.4 million. Ghana’s Gross Domestic Product? About $7 million.

GSK's Combivir is AZT and 3TC (Epivir) combined in one pill. AZT was brought to market solely with taxpayer dollars: the AIDS drug was developed by the Michigan Cancer Foundation using a National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant. Despite exploitation of public funding, GSK has long enjoyed a monopoly on AZT. Combivir will extend that monopoly into 2016.

-30-

Back to Top