GSK halts political funding
pharmafile | January 5, 2009 | News story | Sales and Marketing |Â Â GSK, ethicsÂ
GlaxoSmithKline will no longer make corporate political donations in a bid to make its dealings with governments more transparent and avoid accusations of lobbying.
GSK, like a number of other pharma firms, has made political contributions in the past, and in 2007 these amounted to £249,000.
But the company says all corporate political contributions will cease and no more funding will be given in the future under its new international policy.
Chief executive Andrew Witty said it was important for the company to engage in policy debates and the political process, but at the same time it must avoid any implication it hands out corporate political contributions in return for special privileges.
"As part of our overall drive to improve transparency in terms of our interactions with governments, political leaders and candidates for public office, we believe that stopping corporate political contributions is the right thing to do," he said.
Witty was careful to state that where the company had given contributions in the past, it had always followed the law.
He added: "Our focus is, as it always has been, on helping governments by providing them with evidence that our medicines and vaccines provide a strong value proposition."
In the US, the company will continue to facilitate political contributions by eligible GSK employees through its independent Political Action Committee.
The news marks part of a bigger effort from GSK to improve its transparency, which was called into question in 2004 following accusations it withheld negative data on the antidepressant Seroxat/Paxil.
The company subsequently announced a move to publish all clinical trial data online when a product is approved, and earlier this year it followed companies like Lilly and Merck in pledging to disclose all payments to opinion leaders.
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