BRIEF—GSK's Consumer Healthcare spin-out to be called Haleon

UK pharma major GlaxoSmithKline says the new company, to result from the proposed demerger of Consumer Healthcare from GSK in mid-2022, will be called Haleon.

The new brand will be deployed in more than 100 markets around the world where the business operates.

The creation of Haleon (pronounced "Hay-Lee-On") results from a series of successful investments and strategic changes to GSK’s consumer health business over the last eight years, including integrations of the consumer product portfolios from Novartis and Pfizer. It is now a highly valuable and focused global business generating annual sales of approximately £10 billion  ($13.6 billion).

Just last month GSK rejected the £50 billion ($68.4 billion) bid for its Consumer Healthcare business by Unilever, saying that under-valued the business.

Brian McNamara, chief executive designate of Haleon, said: “Introducing Haleon to the world marks another step in our journey to become a new, standalone company….We are on track to launch Haleon in mid-2022 and our business momentum is strong. We look forward to updating investors and analysts more on this at our capital markets event at the end of February.”