Oxfam slams Glaxo over drugs for poor By Maggie Hartford

Business Editor CAMPAIGNERS from Oxford quizzed GlaxoSmithKline, the world's biggest drugs manufacturer, about how the company intends to make vital medicines accessible to poor people.

At the company's annual meeting in London, GSK announced £5bn profits, but activists and shareholders attacked its attitude toward supplying essential medicines to developing countries.

Investors joined campaigners from the Oxford-based charity Oxfam in demanding to know how the multi- national planned to increase access to life-saving drugs, such as treatments for Aids and malaria, at prices poor countries could afford.

The campaigners say the situation is becoming worse as the World Trade Organisation acts to tighten patent rules, preventing cheap generic versions of the drugs being made.

Jean-Pierre Garnier, GSK's chief executive, said patents were not to blame for the limited access to essential medicines in some countries. He blamed a lack of healthcare infrastructure, inadequate healthcare budgets, failure to prevent the spread of fatal diseases and a lack of political will in some developing nations.

GSK is the world's largest supplier of drugs used to treat HIV and Aids and offers certain treatments at discounts of up to 90 per cent in some countries.

Protesters from Oxfam, dressed in white laboratory coats, greeted shareholders as they arrived for the meeting in London. About a dozen police officers were also present.

Simon Gray, a campaigner from Oxford, said: "GlaxoSmithKline has made the right noises, saying that it will lead the world in getting cheaper drugs to people, but its actions are lagging.

"The company's huge profit shows it could relax its patents in the poorest countries. They are tiny markets, but in them there are millions of people dying from diseases because the cures are too expensive."

The campaigners handed shareholders imitation pillboxes containing a leaflet calling on GSK to make essential medicines cheaper for poor countries. Amid heavy security, GSK tried to prevent shareholders from taking these into the meeting. Bags were searched and mobile phones were confiscated.

Last month, GSK was one of 39 drugs companies that dropped a court challenge against the South African government over its plans to import cheap medicines. More than 25 million people in Africa are infected with HIV.