We must also educate people on the use of antibiotics via prescription.

where GSK is active. Its incidence always increases during the Hajj season, when pilgrims are in close proximity to each other. “We have developed several vaccines to treat meningitis,” he said.

Other diseases like malaria and polio are also on GSK’s target board, but again there are other factors at play. On malaria, he said: “It’s the biggest killer in the world, but was not well researched because the commercial opportunities are not there. We have a vaccine, which is 50 percent effective, which we are supplying to some countries at cost. But it needs other measures — like water quality control and preventive netting — to make it more effective,” he said.

“Polio too is a problem with a regional resonance. It has largely been eradicated in most of the world, with the exception of some cases in Afghanistan, Pakistan and (now) Syria, as well as a few cases in West Africa. There is still a cultural problem with polio vaccination in some parts of the Middle East and Asia,” Miles said.

Willingness to bend traditional commercial imperatives to the medical needs of communities, in cooperation with governments, is a sign of what some industry analysts have called “new pharma.”

GSK has consciously set out to take a lead in promoting the more progressive, compassionate side of the industry.

At GSK, that change is likely to be accelerated by the arrival of a new British chief executive of the group, Natasha Walmsley, who plans to visit the Middle East soon. “The old model couldn’t continue to exist, it had outlived its purpose,” said Miles.