PRNewswire - November 19, 2003

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 19 /PRNewswire/ -- The mammoth California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS) -- which is estimated to hold $850 million in GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) shares -- yesterday voted 10 to 1 (with one absence) to revisit the discussion about their shareholdings in the pharmaceutical giant, GSK. This decision came at the prompting of AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the nation's largest AIDS organization and operator of free health clinics in the US, South Africa, Uganda and Honduras, who presented testimony during the public comment session of the meeting insisting that this matter be brought back into attention.

In April 2002, AHF first approached CalPERS to question their investment in GSK, the world's largest HIV/AIDS drug manufacturer, who has long been accused of charging excessively high drug prices for anti-AIDS drugs and refusing their licenses to generic drug companies in the developing world.

Over the course of the next year, CalPERS agreed that GSK's business policies should be looked at and asked the drug giant to provide them with a report on their pricing policies, licensing agreements and philanthropy in the developing world.

CalPERS made this request via an April 15th letter to J.P. Garnier, GSK's CEO, but GSK never followed through with the report, and since then, CalPERS has all but dropped the issue. AHF, on the coattails of the landmark October 16th decision by the South African Competition Commission, that GSK was guilty of charging excessively high drug prices, re-approached CalPERS and urged them once again to hold GSK responsible for their appalling actions. "GSK's actions have deprived potentially millions of HIV/AIDS victims in the developing world of access to life-saving drugs." Ged Kenslea, Communications Director for AHF, stated in his testimony to the CalPERS Investment Committee board, "You have the power to right this -- to press GSK for answers to the questions that you've already asked, but that they simply refuse to answer."

Also speaking to the board in support of AHF's plea was Keith Malone, a CalPERS vested pension plan member. He told the board, "I'm honored to be a member of CalPERS but dismayed at the thought that I would be making money off of needless suffering." He then urged the board to reopen the matter and investigate the concerns raised regarding GSK.

The board heeded AHF's call to action and agreed to place this item back on the agenda for the next meeting, to be held December 15, 2003 at CalPERS Headquarters in Sacramento. "This decision will no doubt send shock waves through the executive offices of GSK," added AIDS Healthcare Foundation's President Michael Weinstein. "CalPERS has taken the next step and is letting GSK know that their businesses practices in the developing world are closely monitored by their shareholders and that they will be held accountable for all of their actions."

SOURCE AIDS Healthcare Foundation

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