Fulfilling a promise made several years ago, the pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline, based in London, will use 20 percent of the profits it made in the world’s poorest countries to finance health care initiatives, the company announced last week.
In 2010 that amount was $5.7 million, and it will be given over to partnerships in 37 countries in Africa and Asia with three different nonprofit groups: Save the Children, Care International UK and Amref, which was formerly the African Medical and Research Foundation and included the famous Flying Doctors.
The Glaxo chief executive — Andrew Witty, above, who committed the company to doing more for poor nations — said the profits and the gift were “relatively small” but would support development of better models for delivering health care.
By 2012, Mr. Witty hopes to have a project in every poor country where Glaxo makes a profit, a list that includes places like Yemen, Sierra Leone and Nepal.
One supported project is a chain of clinics in Rwanda owned by health workers and run by nurses. The clinics will focus on the most common killer diseases, like malaria, chest infections and dysentery. With Glaxo’s contribution, the original 3 clinics may be expanded to 60.
In Cambodia, the company will support the building of classrooms and dormitories at a training center for midwives. Large numbers of Cambodian women die in childbirth, and many children are stillborn or die in infancy. Many lives can be saved by midwives with relatively brief training.
