Before he retires in two years' time, Jean-Pierre Garnier, the chief executive of GlaxoSmithKline, Europe's biggest drug maker, wants to put the business firmly on track to becoming the Microsoft of the pharmaceutical world.
At the time of the £107bn merger of Glaxo Wellcome and SmithKline Beecham in 2000, the architect of the deal, Glaxo's chief executive Sir Richard Sykes, spoke of creating the "Microsoft of the pharmaceuticals industry". Now Mr Garnier, previously the head of SmithKline and the man who became the chief executive of the merged company, believes ramping up investment in the research and development of new drugs is crucial to making this vision come true.
Mr Garnier said: "In terms of creating the Microsoft, this is a vision of the most R&D intensive company which I completely agree with. We have a chance to step away from the rest of our competition if we execute our plan well and we're now in a position to do so."
More here.
Meanwhile, Bill Gates gets into drug development! The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation yesterday unveiled $104m in fresh grants to the TB Alliance, a non-profit tuberculosis drug development group, in a move that could lead to the development of a new generation of treatments by 2012.
Insider will reserve comment/judgment for the moment.
1 comment:
Interesting turn of events particularly for those of use who were part ot the post-merger blood bath in early 2002. For a company so interested in R&D productivity, then why were so many bench scientists let go especially those of us not made redundant by the merger? It also is fascinating that of the British natives at the Collegeville facility who were initially sacked in the spring of 2002, they subsequently all found jobs elsewhere in the company. No EU-style safety nets for the American researcher.
As for being another Microsoft, that's a bit silly and naive especially if you follow the IT press.
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