Getting GSK back to growth

In our weekly expert view piece, Ed Corbett, engagement manager at specialist management consultancy firm Novasecta, explores the different routes British pharma giant GSK might take to ensure its next wave of growth.

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is the UK’s most highly valued pharmaceutical company, and is an exemplar of the past successes of “UK plc”. Yet like the entire UK economy post-Brexit, it faces some formidable challenges in the next years. GSK is at a crossroads: its CEO of 8 years is moving on, some investors are calling for it to be broken up, and the financial markets are valuing its future (in terms of market cap to sales ratio) at a lower level than all of its US and Swiss Big Pharma peers. Though the next CEO will have a lot on his or her plate, the central issue to solve will be seeding the next wave of growth.

The past model for pharma growth no longer applies