Has big pharma turned fuzzy?

What is going on? Most companies are firing staff, cutting costs and tightening expenses. Big pharma is usually the most ruthless of all when it comes to keeping its bottom line as high as possible.

Now, The Guardian reports that drug firm, GlaxoSmithKline, has decided to "slash prices on all medicines in the poorest countries, give back profits to be spent on hospitals and clinics and – most ground-breaking of all – share knowledge about potential drugs that are currently protected by patents."

It's an amazing turn of events and a huge credit to the pharma giant. I hope, as GlaxoSmithKline has suggested, that other companies follow suit. A couple years ago I wrote a comment piece in New Scientist, criticising big pharma for not innovating while at the same time blocking access to the developing world through mean-fisted patent enforcement.

I never really imagined they would begin to change their ways.

The above photo of a doctor giving an albendazole tablet to a child is from the Glaxo website.