THE chief executive of GlaxoSmithKline, J-P Garnier, has admitted that the pharmaceuticals industry has been too slow to address its negative image and should have acted faster to combat the Aids epidemic.

In an interview with The Times, the French-born executive said GSK and its competitors should have taken the initiative to supply cheap Aids drugs to Africa.

GSK, the world’s leading producer of antiretroviral drugs, has reduced the price of its Aids treatments in the developing world, and licensed production of cheap generic drugs. But it faces criticism that the treatments are either unavailable or too expensive.

Dr Garnier defended GSK’s policy on Aids treatment, but said the company should have acted sooner. He said: “We always end up doing the right things, but sometimes we do it too late. Not many industries are selling their goods to Africa at cost. But we get criticised because we do it after people have been banging on our door for a long time.

“We should have done it way before anybody knew there was a problem in Africa. We, I, didn’t have the vision of saying, ‘we must act now’.”

GSK has also faced criticism over access to clinical data on drugs. In August, the company paid £1.4 million to settle a lawsuit brought by Eliot Spitzer, the New York attorney-general. He accused the company of withholding clinical trial data showing Seroxat, its antidepressant, was harmful to children.

GSK now makes data on drug trials available on the internet. Dr Garnier said the industry had been dominated for too long by “techies in white coats”. “They didn’t understand that you still need to deal with the public at large. They have rights. They need to be reassured. I think we took a long time to understand it and now we’re paying the price.”

Dr Garnier retires in three years, and admitted he was stung by criticism of his proposed £15 million severance package, voted down by shareholders in 2003.