General Election: Only Scottish patients are getting the best new drugs on the NHS April 27, 2015 Terminally ill people in Scotland are being given the best new cancer drugs, while those in the rest of the UK are being deprived of them. This apparently unfair difference stems from the way drug provision by NHS England and NHS Scotland is regulated, with Scotland's drug monitoring body making it much easier for [...]
Glaxosmithkline China dismisses more than 100 over bribery scandal that cost company £300m March 7, 2015 GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has booted more than 100 staff in China on the back of its investigations into the corruption scandal that ended with it being fined £300m last year. The company was found guilty last September of bribing doctors to prescribe its medicines, and began an internal investigation to ascertain the extent of the corruption. [...]
GlaxoSmithKline gives shareholders £4bn windfall after Novartis deal March 2, 2015 GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is delivering a £4bn windfall to shareholders following the conclusion of a three-way deal with Novartis. The deal comes in the wake of a dreadful 2014 for the British drugmaker in which turnover fell by 10 per cent and profits slumped 15 per cent after declining sales in the US and a bribery [...]
RBS chairman Sir Philip Hampton will succeed Sir Christopher Gent at GSK earlier than expected February 26, 2015 Outgoing RBS chairman Sir Philip Hampton is being parachuted into a new job at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) earlier than expected and will spend three months as chairman of both companies. The departure of the drugmaker’s current chairman Sir Christopher Gent was revealed last year, with Hampton due to take the reigns from 1 September. Hampton will [...]
How GSK and AstraZeneca might stop advancing treatments if drug spend is reduced February 19, 2015 Big pharmaceutical companies thrive off the invention of new drugs, but their success relies on those drugs being purchased at the end of the line. If the maximum amount spent by the NHS on new medicines was seriously lowered, as a report released today suggested, it would not only limit access to some [...]
Viiv Healthcare IPO: Banks onboard for GlaxoSmithKline’s £17bn pharma float February 4, 2015 Pharma giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has hired banks to analyse the pros and cons of a float of its HIV medicines business next year, in what would be the one of the UK’s biggest initial public offerings of the last decade. Chief executive Sir Andrew Witty said banks, believed to be Citi, Goldman Sachs and Morgan [...]
GSK takes over in the Ebola race: Experimental vaccine Sent to Liberia for main tests January 23, 2015 Trials of GSK's experimental vaccine to prevent Ebola are about to begin in west Africa. Some 300 doses will be transported to Monrovia, capital of Liberia, and the intention is to inject the first subject within the next few weeks. Ultimately, researchers plan to inoculate 30,000 volunteers, including health-workers. The vaccine was created [...]
Johnson & Johnson catches up with GSK in race to develop Ebola vaccine – human safety trials begin in Oxford January 6, 2015 Johnson & Johnson has started human trials of its new Ebola vaccine, which is intended to stop the spread of the epidemic that has already killed thousands of people in west Africa. Trials are taking place on 72 people at Oxford University, and similar tests will soon get going in the US and three [...]
Glaxo abandons sale of its older drugs portfolio December 4, 2014 British pharma giant GlaxoSmith-Kline revealed late yesterday afternoon that it would not be going ahead with the sale of a portfolio of old drugs that had been valued at over $3bn (£1.9bn). Chief executive Sir Andrew Witty had talked up interest in the selection of off-patent treatments last summer, with several private equity firms believed [...]
How does GSK’s new Ebola vaccine work? US safety trials show immunity with no side effects November 27, 2014 GSK's Ebola vaccine could soon be used to protect people against the disease in west Africa, after trials in the US gave volunteers immunity to the deadly virus without causing any negative side effects. Some 20 healthy people were administered the vaccine in an early-stage clinical trial, and all developed antibodies within four weeks, [...]