Save the Children and GlaxoSmithKline have launched a five-year partnership which will see the charity participate in research into new pharmaceutical products, as well as GSK committing £15m.
The initial target is to save the lives of one million children within five years. Pilot programmes will look at ways to accelerate the availability of medicines, widening vaccine coverage and training healthcare workers in Kenya and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with the intention to scale these up and replicate them in other developing countries.
Save the Children will also have a seat on GSK’s new paediatric research and development board, identifying ways to save the lives of children under five, such as developing an antiseptic gel and child-friendly antibiotics. It is the first time that a charity has been involved with GSK in this way, and the intention is for Save the Children to contribute “on-the-ground experience” to the development process.
Justin Forsyth, chief executive of Save the Children, said: “This groundbreaking partnership involves both organisations working in genuinely new ways to save the lives of a million children. In the past Save the Children may not have embarked on collaboration with a pharmaceutical company like GSK.”
Andrew Witty, CEO of GSK, said: “The important thing about this partnership is that it will create new tools for Save the Children and others.”
GSK has committed to bring at least £15m to the partnership, though this includes an ambition to raise £1m per year through employee fundraising, which will be matched by the company. It will make additional contributions through specific research and development programmes.
The two organisations have been working together for eight years on public health projects. Witty said that this meant he has “a huge degree of confidence” that the new partnership will be successful and that “we expect this to be a very long relationship”.
War on Want: PR and marketing stunt by GSK
The announcement was not universally welcomed by the sector.
John Hilary, executive director at War on Want, suggested that after being fined $3bn in the US for promoting antidepressants unapproved for children, GSK’s motives might not be entirely altruistic.
He told the Today programme on Radio 4 this morning that: “Clearly Glaxo needs to rehabilitate its reputation and what better than a partnership with Save the Children to try and do that.
“But the second issue here, and the second benefit for Glaxo, is the idea that they can enter new markets, they can get access to new markets in emerging economies which will become more and more important for their sales over the long run.”
