LONDON — The London-based international drug firm GlaxoSmithKline announced today a global ban on corporate political contributions.
The primary impact will be in the United States and Canada, where the company has been making contributions to political candidates. The new policy will also prevent contributions in the more than 100 other countries where the firm does business.
“We need to ensure that there is no implication whatsoever that corporate political contributions provide us with any special privileges,” said Chief Executive Officer Andrew Witty, who said all political contributions had been properly reported.
He said the new policy is part of a companywide effort to be more transparent in dealings with governments, politicians and candidates.
The policy will not affect GSK’s European operations, where political contributions have been prohibited for seven years, said spokeswoman Sarah Alspach.
Despite the change, the company will still support a voluntary political action committee in the United States that will allow eligible employees to make political contributions.
Alspach said GlaxoSmithKline gave $585,425 to U.S. political candidates this year and CA$ 58,000 to Canadian politicians in 2007, the last year in which figures are available.
The sprawling drug company has roughly 100,000 employees throughout the world.
