Industry/Health Service Partnerships Viewed

Glaxo Wellcome has no interest in attempting to compete with the National Health Service in the provision of disease management in the UK, although the situation in other markets may be different, according to Geoff Baxter, regional business director with the company.

He told a seminar last week on the role of the private sector in health care partnerships and alliances, organized as part of an international conference on primaryhealth care-led purchasing in London, that the industry has realized the need for it to supply value-added must-have services in addition to its core research-based products, and that the new era of partnership will call for both a longer-term perspective and a new level of honesty.

Lack Of Knowledge And Understanding On Both Sides Philip Sands, director of corporate strategy and commissioning at the Kirklees and Calderdale Health Authority in the UK, described how the partnership approach is developing within his authority. In February, it invited leading drug companies to a meeting to discuss how such partnerships could be developed, and this has led to the issuing of a joint statement on a common agenda, aiming for a win-win situation for both parties; this recognizes that each side has an entirely different motivation from the other. The experience has revealed a remarkable lack of understanding by the industry about the NHS and how it works, and a similar ignorance on the part of health authority staff about the industry, he added.