GSK plc
GSK plc (an acronym from its former name GlaxoSmithKline plc) is a British multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company with global headquarters in London.[3][4] It was established in 2000 by a merger of Glaxo Wellcome and SmithKline Beecham,[n 1] which was itself a merger of a number of pharmaceutical companies around the Smith, Kline & French firm.
Formerly
GlaxoSmithKline (2000–2022)
- Glaxo Wellcome
- SmithKline Beecham
27 December 2000
London, England, UK
Worldwide
- Jonathan Symonds (Chairperson)
- Emma Walmsley (CEO)
£6.745 billion (2023)[1]
£5.308 billion (2023)[1]
£59.005 billion (2023)[1]
£12.795 billion (2023)[1]
70,000 (2024)[2]
GSK is the tenth largest pharmaceutical company and #294 on the 2022 Fortune Global 500, ranked behind other pharmaceutical companies China Resources, Sinopharm, Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, Roche, AbbVie, Novartis, Bayer, and Merck Sharp & Dohme.[5]
The company has a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. As of February 2024, it had a market capitalisation of £69 billion, the eighth largest on the London Stock Exchange.[6]
The company developed the first malaria vaccine, RTS,S, which it said in 2014, it would make available for five per cent above cost.[7] Legacy products developed at GSK include several listed in the World Health Organization's List of Essential Medicines, such as amoxicillin, mercaptopurine, pyrimethamine and zidovudine.[8]
In 2012, under prosecution by the United States Department of Justice (DoJ) based on combined investigations of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS-OIG), FDA and FBI, primarily concerning sales and marketing of the drugs Avandia, Paxil and Wellbutrin, GSK pleaded guilty to promotion of drugs for unapproved uses, failure to report safety data and kickbacks to physicians in the United States and agreed to pay a US$3 billion (£1.9bn) settlement. It was the largest health-care fraud case to date in the US and the largest settlement in the pharmaceutical industry.[9]
Venture arms[edit]
SR One was established in 1985, by SmithKline Beecham to invest in new biotechnology companies and continued operating after GSK was formed; by 2003, GSK had formed another subsidiary, GSK Ventures, to out-license or start new companies around drug candidates that it did not intend to develop further.[107] As of 2003, SR One tended to invest only if the company aligned with GSK's business.[107]
In September 2019, Avalon Ventures announced that it entered into a definitive agreement with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) for the acquisition of Sitari Pharmaceuticals by GSK. This includes its transglutaminase 2 (TG2) small molecule program for the treatment of celiac disease.[108]
Controversies[edit]
1973 Antitrust case over griseofulvin[edit]
In the 1960s, Glaxo Group Ltd. (Glaxo) and Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) each owned patents covering various aspects of the antifungal drug griseofulvin.[127]: 54, nn. 1–2 [128] They created a patent pool by cross-licensing their patents, subject to express licensing restrictions that the chemical from which the "finished" form of the drug (tablets and capsules) was made must not be resold in bulk form, and they licensed other drug companies to sell the drug in finished form and subject to similar restrictions.[127]: 54–55 [128] The effect and intent of the bulk-sale restriction was to keep the drug chemical out of the hands of small companies that might act as price-cutters, and the effect was to maintain stable, uniform prices.[129][130][131]
The United States brought an antitrust suit against the two companies—United States v. Glaxo Group Ltd.—charging them with violation of the Sherman Act and also seeking to have the patents declared invalid.[127]: 55 [128] The trial court found that the defendants had engaged in several unlawful conspiracies, but dismissed the part of the suit seeking invalidation of patents and refused to grant as relief mandatory sales of the bulk drug chemical and compulsory licensing of the patents.[127]: 56 [128] The government appealed to the Supreme Court, which reversed, in United States v. Glaxo Group Ltd., 410 U.S. 52 (1973).[128]