Two leading companies working in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology fields have announced private-public partnerships intended to improve public health in the third world.
Glaxo Wellcome, the pharmaceuticals company, is to work with the United Nations to improve access to HIV medicines, in part by making them available at low cost.
AstraZeneca, the life sciences company, is to give third world farmers free access to a genetically modified product which assists in the treatment of vitamin A deficiency, a common cause of blindness in some developing countries.
Both industry sectors have faced reputational challenges in recent months regarding either the use of, or access to, their products.
Glaxo Wellcome is one of five pharmaceutical companies involved in the initiative to provide cheaper ‘combination therapy’ to people with HIV in developing countries. The others are Boehringer Ingelheim, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Merck and Roche.
This joint initiative could cut the price of therapy for HIV, which affects an estimated 30million people, to about $2 (£1.20) a day, a seventh of the US price.
Sir Richard Sykes, chairman of Glaxo Wellcome said: ‘The HIV epidemic in developing countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, is a major public health crisis ... Glaxo Wellcome has long believed the private sector has a role to play in contributing to a multi-sector response to this [HIV/AIDS] epidemic.’
Glaxo Wellcome will also support the UN International Partnership Against AIDS in Africa and grass roots community groups will receive direct training and technical support from similar groups in the continent.
The announcement came in the same week that AstraZeneca, in a separate development, announced it would give third world farmers free access to Golden Rice, which has been genetically modified to combat vitamin A deficiency.
The company will also provide regulatory, advisory and research expertise to help make the rice available in developing countries.
AstraZeneca has signed a deal with the inventors of the rice. The inventors will retain the non-commercial rights, and will distribute the rice free of charge to government-run agricultural centres in Asian countries including China and India, where rice is a staple food.
Zeneca Agrochemicals, the crop protection and plant science division of the company, has bought the rights to sell the rice in the developed world.
Work on the new rice has been funded by the Rockefeller Foundation, the Swiss government and the European Union.
One of the scientists who developed the rice, Ingo Potrylus of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, said: ‘Zeneca has ... demonstrated sensitivity to the needs of impoverished people in the developing world. Zeneca will help us deliver Golden Rice more speedily to those that need it most.’
Zeneca Agrochemicals is the fourth largest supplier to the plant science market, with sales of $2.7billion in 1999.