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GlaxoSmithKline

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GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is an international drug giant headquartered in Britain. In 2003, GSK had sales of $35.2 billion and profit before tax of $11 billion. GSK has over 100,000 employees worldwide, 40,000 of which are in sales and marketing; making it the largest sales force in the industry. Around 35,000 employees work at 85 manufacturing sites in 37 countries and over 16,000 are in Research and Development. [1] GSK traces its heritage back to a London pharmacy established in 1715. Various entities, including Burroughs Wellcome & Company, Smith Kline & French Laboratories, and Glaxo Laboratories merged to form GSK. [2]

Contents

GlaxoSmithKline & placebo effect

In 2003, a senior executive for GlaxoSmithKline announced that the vast majority of drugs, more than 90%; only work in 30 to 50% of the people. Dr. Allen Roses, an academic geneticist from Duke University spoke at a scientific meeting in London:

"Drugs for Alzheimer's disease work in fewer than one in three patients, whereas those for cancer are only effective in a quarter of patients. Drugs for migraines, for osteoporosis, and arthritis work in about half the patients. Most drugs work in fewer than one in two patients mainly because the recipients carry genes that interfere in some way with the medicine." [3]

Animal testing

GlaxoSmithKline does animal testing.

Animals by species, numbers & location

  • King Of Prussia, PA [4]

Facility information, progress & USDA-APHIS reports

For links to copies of this facility's U.S. Department of Agriculture reports indicating species, number of animals used and other information visit Stop Animal Experimentation Now Facility Reports and Information, U.S. Department of Agriculture-Animal Plant Health Inspection reports. This Web site lists each of the 50 states; each state's name links to biomedical research facilities in that state, and to PDF copies of government documents where the facilities must report their animal usage.

Contract testing

GlaxoSmithKline contract tests out to Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS). [5] Hungtingdon Life Sciences is the 3rd largest contract research organization (CRO) in the world and the largest animal testing facility in all of Europe. Firms hire HLS to conduct animal toxicity tests for agrochemicals, petrochemicals, household products, pharmaceutical drugs and toxins. HLS has a long history of gross animal welfare violations. See also Huntingdon Life Sciences.

Problems with antidepressants for teens

In March 2004, the Canadian Medical Association Journal published excerpts from a GSK "internal document" that advised staff "to withhold clinical trial findings in 1998 that indicated the antidepressant paroxetine (Paxil in North America and Seroxat in the UK) had no beneficial effect in treating adolescents." The GSK memo recommended, in part, that the company needed to "effectively manage the dissemination of these data in order to minimize any potential negative commercial impact" and stated that "It would be commercially unacceptable to include a statement that efficacy had not been demonstrated, as this would undermine the profile of paroxetine." [5]

Improving GSK's public image

Due to the low public standing of GSK and of the drug industry as a whole, GSK began engaging in aggressive, often locally-focused PR.

In spring 2004, GSK launched a "grassroots outreach" effort, sending "sales representatives to deliver its message in front of the religious, fraternal, and other community groups to which they belong." A year into the effort, PR Week reported that GSK's standing had improved by 13 points, according to a Harris Interactive poll. "Clearly the grassroots campaign is having an impact," said Michael Pucci, Glaxo's VP of external advocacy. [6]

GSK "also forged a partnership with WebMD, launching the website plaintalkaboutmeds.com to address issues ranging from the cost of developing drugs to patient assistance programs," reported PR Week. [7]

In Fall 2005, the company will begin "an extensive state-by-state media blitz," paralleling its "grassroots outreach." PR Week reported, "Glaxo will target local media markets in each state - outlets that do not often have the chance to communicate directly with pharmaceutical executives." GSK's Pucci said that local reporters were easier for the drug company to deal with. "These folks are hungry for news," he said. "They'll print everything we say … without the political spin." GSK hired two PR firms for the media work, but declined to name them. [8]

Avandia controversy

Following Dr. Steven Nissen's publication of a study warning that "GlaxoSmithKline's diabetes drug Avandia increased the risk of heart attacks by 43% and death from cardiovascular events by possibly 64%," he was publicly pilloried. "More than one story from ostensibly different sources" derisively referred to him as "St Steven," the "Patron Saint of Drug Safety," and "Saint Steven the Pure," reported Evelyn Pringle in an August 2007 CounterPunch article. [9]

Among the Nissen attackers was FDA spokesman Douglas Arbesfeld. Arbesfeld previously worked at the PR firm Manning Selvage & Lee (MS&L), helping Glaxo and other "healthcare clients maximize internet-relations." Former FDA Deputy Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb, who ridiculed Nissen in a Wall Street Journal editorial, also consulted for pharmaceutical companies at MS&L. Two more FDA alums, Peter Pitts and Robert Goldberg, mocked Nissen in a Washington Times piece. Pitts is the senior vice-president for global health affairs at MS&L. Goldberg doesn't have ties to the PR firm, but serves with Pitts as an officer of the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest (CMPI), which Pringle describes as a "nest of ex-moles who served the industry in one capacity or another in the Bush Administration's FDA." [10] CMPI is a project of the Pacific Research Institute, a free market think tank.

Paxil Controversy and Lawsuits

In 2003 GSK signed a corporate integrity agreement and paid $88 million in a civil fine for overcharging Medicaid for the antidepressant Paxil, and nasal-allergy spray Flonase. Later that year GSK also ran afoul of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and was facing a demand for $7.8 billion in backdated taxes and interest, the highest in IRS history.

On September 12, 2006 GSK settled the largest tax dispute in IRS history agreeing to pay $3.1 billion. At issue in the case were Zantac and the other Glaxo Group heritage products sold from 1989–2005. The case was about an area of taxation dealing with intracompany "transfer pricing"—determining the share of profit attributable to the US subsidiaries of GSK and subject to tax by the IRS. Taxes for large multi-divisional companies are paid to revenue authorities based on the profits reported in particular tax jurisdictions, so how profits were allocated among various legacy Glaxo divisions based on the functions they performed was central to the dispute in this case.[6]

On December 22, 2006, a US court decided in Hoorman, et al. v. SmithKline Beecham Corp that individuals who purchased Paxil(R) or Paxil CR(TM) (paroxetine) for a minor child may be eligible for benefits under a $63.8 million Proposed Settlement.[7] The lawsuit won the argument that GSK promoted Paxil(R) or Paxil CR(TM) for prescription to children and adolescents while withholding and concealing material information about the medication's safety and effectiveness for minors.

The lawsuit stemmed from a consumer advocate protest against Paroxetine manufacturer GSK. Since the FDA approved paroxetine in 1992, approximately 5,000 U.S. citizens – and thousands more worldwide – have sued GSK. Most of these people feel they were not sufficiently warned in advance of the drug's side effects and addictive properties.

According to the Paxil Protest website, http://www.paxilprotest.com, hundreds more lawsuits have been filed against GSK.[8] The Paxil Protest website was launched August 8, 2005 to offer both information about the protest and information on Paxil previously unavailable to the public. Just three weeks after its launch, the site received more than a quarter of a million hits. The original Paxil Protest website was removed from the internet in 2006. It is understood that the action to take down the site was undertaken as part of a confidentiality agreement or 'gagging order' which the owner of the site entered into as part of a settlement of his action against GlaxoSmithKline. (However, in March 2007, the website Seroxat Secrets [9]discovered that an archive of the Paxil Protest Site was still available on the internet via Archive.org) Gagging orders are common in such cases and can extend to documents that defendants wish to remain hidden from the public. However in some cases, such documents can become public at a later date, such as those made public by Dr. Peter Breggin in February of 2006.[10]

Public relations

Americans for Medical Progress's (AMP) board of directors consists of senior executives and other representatives employed by the pharmaceutical and vivisection industries. Board members represent multinational, billion dollar corporations as well as universities and institutions receiving government grants for vivisection. They include: Charles River, Abbott Laboratories, GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Wyeth. [11]

Lobbying

The company spent $991,000 for lobbying in 2006. The lobbying was done using outside lobbying firms rather than with in-house lobbyists. Some of the firms used were Barbour, Griffith and Rogers, Dutko Worldwide, Walker Martin & Hatch, and BKSH & Associates. [12]

Political contributions

GlaxoSmithKline gave $891,413 to federal candidates in the 05/06 election cycle through its political action committee (PAC) - 29% to Democrats, 70% to Republicans, and 1% to other parties. [13]

Personnel

Key executives and 2006 pay: [14]

Selected members of the Board of Directors: [15]

In February 2009, GSK announced that James Murdoch, the son of media mogul Rupert Murdoch, was joining the company as a non-executive director, on the company's main board and on its corporate responsibility committee. [16]

Contact info

GlaxoSmithKline plc
980 Great West Road
Brentford, Middlesex TW8 9GS
UK
Phone: 020 8047 5000
Web: http://gsk.com/index.htm

5 Moore Drive
P.O. Box 13398
Research Triangle Park, NC 27709
USA
Phone: 888 825 5249

One Franklin Plaza
Philadelphia, PA 19102
USA
Web: http://us.gsk.com

Drugs marketed by GSK

Articles & sources

SourceWatch articles

References

  1. ↑ Diversityworking.com GlaxoSmithKline, accessed February 2009
  2. ↑ GlaxoSmithKline Our History, accessed February 2009
  3. ↑ Steve Connor GlaxoSmithKline Chief: Our Drugs Do Not Work On Most Patients, The Independent Science, December 2003
  4. ↑ Research Facilities: GlaxoSmithKline, Kind of Prussia, Humane Society of the United States, accessed February 2009
  5. ↑ Inside Customers, SHAC.net, accessed December 2009
  6. ↑ [1] Times UK Online Sept 12 2006
  7. ↑ [2] Paxil® Pediatric Settlement Web site
  8. ↑ [3] National Paxil Protest invites antidepressant drugs victims to join public outcry against GSK September 06, 2005
  9. ↑ [4]
  10. ↑ Dr. Peter Breggin, Press Release, 2006
  11. ↑ Board of Directors, Americans for Medical Progress, accessed December 2009
  12. ↑ GlaxoSmithKline lobbying expenses, Open Secrets, accessed October 2007.
  13. ↑ 2006 PAC Summary Data, Open Secrets, accessed July 2007.
  14. ↑ GlaxoSmithKline Key Executives, Yahoo Finance, accessed October 2007.
  15. ↑ Pg 54, Board of Directors, GlaxoSmithKline, accessed October 2007.
  16. ↑ Javier Espinoza, "Murdoch Joins Glaxo's Ranks," Forbes.com, February 3, 2009.

External articles

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