Brief info:
Its mission is to improve quality of human life by enabling people to do more, feel better and live longer
One of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world
Products include medicines, vaccines, consumer healthcare
Reflections:
GSK, being a world-renowned pharmaceutical company, is not unheard of anywhere, but I had linked it only to medicines that I took every now and then. Before prior research, I had no idea that consumer healthcare was also under GSK's products, such as well known Horlicks or Ribena. Contradictory to many misconceptions, GSK plays a larger role in our lives than we think of. Any daily intakes of the healthcare products, or medicines and vaccines received during sickness are testimonial to GSK's pivotal role in our healthcare.
After researching, I was much impressed by what GSK has done, mainly to the less fortunate. They aim to combat the three "priority" diseases as stated by the WHO, namely malaria, HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis. Moreover, they have co-operated with Pfizer, another giant pharmaceutical company, to create ViiV healthcare which proposes to specifically work on the treatment of HIV, a worthy cause since HIV is incurable as of now.
GSK's product line is also extremely impressive, considering that they cater to the masses via consumer healthcare and have acquired Stiefel, previously the world's largest independent dermatology company. As stated earlier, the common healthcare supplements and nutritional drinks many take are under GSK, while a large percentage of common medicines and vaccines that are part and parcel of our lives are manufactured by GSK.
While GSK's efforts are commendable, it seems that it has been under fire, mainly in the Seroxat Scandal. The anti-depressant Seroxat was investigated by a BBC programme in 2002 and it was suggested to cause suicidal behaviour, and it was only in February 2003 that GSK submitted clinical results that Seroxat caused suicidal ideation. Several side-effects of Seroxat include emotional lability, which refers to a range of symptoms including mood-swings, self-harm and even attempted suicide. Though the GSK spokesman said that GSK has not withheld any information, it is still disappointing that a large pharmaceutical company had not done enough tests to ensure the safety of Seroxat (the UK drug regulator banned the administration of Seroxat to children under 18). The side-effects of Seroxat has also caused doubts of the efficacy of the anti-depressant, and I wonder what the results of clinical trials had shown for Seroxat to be able to be marketed as an anti-depressant.
Refer to:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=gsk-and-pfizer-in-hiv-company-merge-2009-04-16
http://www.nursingtimes.net/whats-new-in-nursing/special-report-the-seroxat-scandal/892270.article
Of course, while doubts about GSK may be true, a large company like GSK will always be under fire by its opponents or critics. Its efforts in the medical community should still be acknowledged, and their products have benefited many around the world.
While I am not entirely interested in medicine and the like, I have always wondered how pharmaceutical companies invent medicine with specific proportions of the ingredients. I am also interested in the manufacturing process and the testing for inadequacies during the production phase (do they test it on humans like they would for manufacturing food?). Aside from plain curiosity, I hope the visit to GSK will enlighten me on the area of pharmaceutics and allow me to gain a greater insight on how GSK has been able to become one of the largest pharmaceutical company in the world.
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