RE: Elsevier plus LexusNexis: profits up for 2008, to over $1.5

["Parker, Kimberly" <parkerk@who.int>]

Liblicense has a webpage devoted to Developing Country 
Initiatives: http://www.library.yale.edu/~llicense/develop.shtml 
Among the programs noted, are three sister programs, HINARI, 
AGORA, and OARE.  Elsevier was one of the initial 6 publishers in 
the partnership which formed in 2001 and which offers free access 
to publishers' online journals in the least developed countries, 
and nominal fee access in a slightly more developed set of 
countries.

The list of initiatives compiled by liblicense is a tribute to 
the fact that publishers have been offering their content for 
free or for much steeper discounts than GlaxoSmithKline for quite 
a number of years.

Best regards,
Kimberly Parker

---------------------
Kimberly Parker
HINARI Programme Manager
Library (LNK)
World Health Organization    Tel: +41 22 791 4467
Av. Appia, 20                Fax: +41 22 791 4150
1211 Geneva 27               E-mail: parkerk@who.int
SWITZERLAND                  http://www.who.int/hinari

-----Original Message-----
From: MaryJoan Crowley [mailto:maryjoan.crowley@uniroma1.it]
Sent: 02 March 2009 01:10
To: liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
Subject: RE: Elsevier plus LexusNexis: profits up for 2008, to over $1.5

Perhaps Elsevier could take a lesson from GlaxoSmithKline and try
to follow suit.

Andrew Witty, the new head of GlaxoSmithKline, recently announced
that it would:

-cut its prices for all drugs in the 50 least developed countries
to no more than 25% of UK and US levels

- reinvest 20% of its profits in the least developed countries

AND

-put any chemicals or processes over which it has intellectual
property rights that are relevant to finding drugs for neglected
diseases into a "patent pool", so that they can be explored by
other researchers.

While limited it does come as a surprise and, as Witty says,
maybe someone has to move before many people move. Let's hope
Elsevier takes note.

Sincerely,

Mary Joan Crowley
___________________________________________
Caspur-Ciber

Biblioteca Ingegneria Strutturale e Geotecnica
SAPIENZA University of Rome
via Eudossiana 18 - 00184 ROME Italy

office:  0644585387
e-mail: maryjoan.crowley@uniroma1.it
webpage: http://w3.disg.uniroma1.it/biblioteca/