As part of a planned five-year initiative to improve healthcare in Africa, GlaxoSmithKline has announced that it plans to make more of its existing drugs available in Africa and has specified the Ventolin albuterol inhaler as an example. The company’s announcement also said that it would invest up to £100 million in its existing manufacturing facilities in Kenya and Nigeria and to build five additional GMP plants to manufacture “locally relevant products,” including respiratory drugs.
A spokesperson for the company notes that “respiratory problems are important to address in Africa because of the dust and the reliance on fires for cooking and heating, which tend to exacerbate respiratory problems.”
GSK will invest an additional £25 million to create an R&D open lab for non-communicable diseases and will fund up to 25 academic chairs in relevant fields at African universities.
The long-term goal of the program, CEO Andrew Witty said, “is to equip Africa to discover, develop and produce the medicines required for Africa.”
Read the GSK press release.
