Sanofi, GSK Make Novartis Look Scrooge-Like on Swine Flu Vaccine Donations

(MoneyWatch)  The corporate image teams at Sanofi-Aventis and GlaxoSmithKline can pop the champagne for their victory over Novartis on the swine flu vaccine issue.

Sanofi promised 100 million free vaccines for the World Health Organization and GSK promised 50 million. Novartis, by contrast, said it would not give any vaccine for free. Novartis CEO Daniel Vasella was quoted in the FT saying:

If you want to make production sustainable, you have to create financial incentives.

Sanofi CEO Chris Viehbacher all but called Vasella a Scrooge in his comment to Bloomberg:

We all have to play our part. It can't be only the rich countries having access to the vaccines, in case of a pandemic.

The move also burnishes GSK chief Andrew Witty's rep as a master of pr. It's his second piece of good news in the last two weeks. Back on June 12, GSK earned kudos -- and a drug endorsement -- from German authorities for not hiding any of its studies of depression drug Wellbutrin (buproprion XL).