英國藥廠 GSK 的驚人之舉

每次看到這種新聞，還是覺得人間有一點希望的，人性也沒像我們想像的那麼糟糕。

作為全世界的第二大藥廠，英國 GSK 的新 CEO Andrew Witty 宣佈一連串的政策，包含了: 對全世界貧困的國家降低藥品的價格，賣給這些開發中國家的獲利的 20% 將會投資給當地的醫院和醫護人員。

除此之外，還提出了"專利集中共享(patent pool)"的構想，讓藥廠以外的研究人員能夠參與研究計畫，協助解決被忽視的疾病的解藥。

這真的是一項驚人之舉，是第一次藥廠宣佈他們有責任改善全世界人類的衛生和健康狀況。

"We work like crazy to come up with the next great medicine, knowing that it's likely to get used an awful lot in developed countries, but we could do something for developing countries. Are we working as hard on that? I want to be able to say yes we are, and that's what this is all about – trying to make sure we are even-handed in terms of our efforts to find solutions not just for developed but for developing countries."

在當前經濟不景氣中，看到最有影響力的大企業的CEO講上述的話，願意做這種道德上的反思，並且願意冒著收入減低的風險改變政策，值得尊敬。

延伸閱讀:

Drug giant GlaxoSmithKline pledges cheap medicine for world's poor (Guardian: 13/Feb/2009)

Profits before the poor? Drugs giant offers an answer to the toxic question facing a 'heartless' industry (Guardian: 14/Feb/2009)