Logo

A Drug Company and the Poor

Feb 10, 2010

The New York Times profiles GlaxoSmithKline's Andrew Witty, particularly focusing on his efforts to help the poor. Witty has promised to limit the price of GSK drugs in poor countries to no more than 25 percent of what they charge in wealthy nations and to donate one-fifth of the profits from poor countries to build up their healthcare systems. Witty, of course, has his detractors. Daniel Berman, who began the Doctors Without Borders' Access Campaign says that moving vaccine technology to middle-income countries was "still a lot of smoke and mirrors" and that GSK's malaria-focused lab in Spain "still doesn't have a big enough budget to make a difference." Witty has won over others, including Oxfam's Sophia Tickell. "I'm in charge of an organization that can actually make a difference for people in the third world, and I am not going to be the person who, after X years, sits back and says, 'Oh, I wish I'd done more,'" Witty says.

Breaking News
The Scan

Genome Sequences Reveal Range Mutations in Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells

Researchers in Nature Genetics detect somatic mutation variation across iPSCs generated from blood or skin fibroblast cell sources, along with selection for BCOR gene mutations.

Researchers Reprogram Plant Roots With Synthetic Genetic Circuit Strategy

Root gene expression was altered with the help of genetic circuits built around a series of synthetic transcriptional regulators in the Nicotiana benthamiana plant in a Science paper.

Infectious Disease Tracking Study Compares Genome Sequencing Approaches

Researchers in BMC Genomics see advantages for capture-based Illumina sequencing and amplicon-based sequencing on the Nanopore instrument, depending on the situation or samples available.

LINE-1 Linked to Premature Aging Conditions

Researchers report in Science Translational Medicine that the accumulation of LINE-1 RNA contributes to premature aging conditions and that symptoms can be improved by targeting them.