GSK outlines plans to become more ‘biotech-like’

John Carroll — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 11:53:09 -0400

Biotech is in. At least, that's the message from GlaxoSmithKline's Patrick Vallance, the pharma giant's head of drug discovery. In a speech in London on Monday Vallance made clear that Glaxo intends to become more "biotech-like" in advancing new therapies. That calls for smaller discovery teams which would be incentivized for creating value and ‘disincentivized' for value destruction.

Glaxo has been one of the most aggressive pharma companies in the industry when it comes to in-licensing new biotech therapies in development. The company has been setting up Centres of Excellence in Drug Discovery and is funding outside research through the Centre of Excellence in External Drug Discovery. But Glaxo has been talking up an entrepreneurial atmosphere for eight years even as pressure has built to advance new drugs to take the place of blockbusters losing patent protection.

That trend, no doubt, will make those ‘disincentives' ever more painful.

- read the report from the Financial Times