GSK invests £130m in Africa
pharmafile | April 1, 2014 | News story | Manufacturing and Production, Research and Development, Sales and Marketing | Africa, GSK, Nigeria, kenya, rwanda, sub-saharan
GlaxoSmithKline is to invest £130 million in sub-Saharan Africa over the next five years – money which the company says will create at least 500 jobs and improve local training.
Up to £100m will go into beefing up its existing manufacturing facilities in Nigeria and Kenya, plus building as many as five new factories in Africa, with possible locations including Rwanda, Ghana and Ethiopia.
The company will also establish 25 academic chairs at African universities in disciplines such as science, engineering and public health – and train 10,000 community health workers.
Also as part of its new venture GSK, which has just taken full possession of its Indonesian consumer healthcare unit, is putting £25 million into setting up the first R&D ‘open lab’ for non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in Africa.
GSK has trialled this model at its open lab in Tres Cantos, Madrid, which it launched to give researchers greater access to its compounds and expertise as part of a commitment to look at diseases of the developing world such as malaria, tuberculosis and leishmaniasis.
The idea of the African equivalent is to improve understanding of NCD variations seen on the continent – for example, the apparent higher prevalence of treatment-resistant hypertension and aggressive breast cancers in younger women.
GSK scientists in its Stevenage R&D facility will work with researchers in scientific centres across Africa, supporting their training and education and creating what the company calls “a deep vein of ‘African thinking’ within GSK’s own R&D organisation”.
GSK chief executive Sir Andrew Witty announced the investment at the 5th EU-Africa Business Forum in Brussels, saying: “We are setting out further steps to tackle Africa’s dual health burden of infectious and emerging NCDs and help build crucial capacity to underpin the development of the healthcare sector in the region.”
GSK already has manufacturing sites in Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa and its business in sub-Saharan Africa employs around 1,500 people in over 40 countries.
The company says it will also work with local partner Aspen and with regulators to increase access to its Amoxil antibiotic and Ventolin respiratory medicine.
Adam Hill
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