GSK and the University of Oxford have entered a new research collaboration focused on the potential of cancer prevention through vaccination. The program, in which GSK plans to invest up to £50 million over a minimum of three years, will conduct translational research, exploring precancer biology to generate key insights on how cancer develops in humans that could inform future development of cancer vaccines.
In a move to expand its oncology business, GSK is nearing a $1 billion deal to buy a US biotech developing a treatment for rare gastrointestinal tumors.
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) agreed to acquire a clinical-stage drug from Chimagen Biosciences, a privately held Chinese biotechnology company. CMG1A46 is a dual CD19 and CD20-targeted T cell-engager (TCE), which GSK plans to develop and commercialize with a focus on B cell-driven autoimmune diseases, such as systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and lupus nephritis (LN), with potential to expand into related autoimmune diseases.
British pharma company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) plans to invest up to $800 million to expand drug substance and drug product manufacturing capabilities at the company’s US site in Marietta, Pennsylvania. The investment, which GSK said is its largest ever in US manufacturing, is expected to create more than 200 new jobs.
GSK and innovation company Flagship Pioneering have entered a collaboration to develop a portfolio of new medicines and vaccines, starting in respiratory and immunology. Flagship’s ecosystem comprises 40 bioplatform companies, including Moderna.
Touchlight, a UK-based custom development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) specializing in enzymatic DNA production, signed a license agreement with British drugmaker GSK which grants GSK non-exclusive rights to use Touchlight’s proprietary enzymatic dbDNA (doggybone DNA) technology for the development and production of mRNA-based products.
GSK has agreed to acquire biotech Aiolos Bio for a $1 billion upfront payment and up to $400 million for the achievement of certain milestones. Founded just last year, Aiolos is a San Francisco, USA and London, UK-based biopharmaceutical company that develops treatments for respiratory diseases.
GSK has struck a deal with Chongqing Zhifei Biological Products to promote the British group's shingles vaccine, Shingrix, in China for an initial three-year period. Starting on Jan.1, 2024, Zhifei will have exclusive rights to import and distribute Shingrix in China through its service network of more than 30,000 vaccination points across the country.
Biopharma companies are facing funding challenges in 2023 as interest rates rise and investors are becoming more risk adverse. There is hope on the horizon, say some analysts, while others project a prolonged slump due to inflation and global instability. Established pharmaceutical companies are often seen as safer investments, with larger developers expected to perform well in 2023, especially if litigation threats against drugs like Zantac disappear. However, concerns about revenue gaps continue for big companies like GSK and Sanofi, and their strategy and leadership will be closely monitored in the coming months.
European NGOs have welcomed the EU’s plans for an overhaul of pharmaceutical legislation – the first in two decades – presented this week in Brussels. The drugs industry, however, has expressed sharp criticism.
GSK is set to gain exclusive rights to first-in-class oral antifungal Brexafemme (ibrexafungerp) for treating vulvovaginal candidiasis (VVC) and recurrent VVC (RVVC) from US biotech Scynexis. The treatment is also currently undergoing Phase 3 clinical trials for invasive candidiasis (IS), a life-threatening fungal infection.
As part of what seems to be a general pattern of staff reductions in the pharmaceutical industry worldwide, a growing number of Western drugmakers are downsizing their sales and marketing presence in India.
GSK is pruning its cooperation with Vir Biotechnology, turning away from Covid-19 antibody and vaccine research projects while continuing to collaborate with the company on two pandemic assets and programs to treat other respiratory diseases.
German biotech CureVac has released preliminary data from its ongoing cooperation with UK drugmaker GSK on a new class of “transformative medicines” based on messenger mRNA.
British pharma GSK has entered into a four-year collaboration with US clinical-stage genetic medicines company Wave Life Sciences to advance oligonucleotide therapeutics, including Wave’s preclinical RNA-editing program targeting alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency (AATD), an inherited disorder that can cause lung and liver disease.
The UK’s Center for Process Innovation (CPI) opened its Medicines Manufacturing Innovation Center in Glasgow on Nov. 30, with the aim of accelerating new technologies in the pharma industry.
After several delays and restarts and a lengthy review by the European Medicines Agency (EMA), the Covid-19 vaccine called VidPrevtyn Beta developed by the French-British partnership of Sanofi and GSK has been greenlighted by the European Commission.
The CEOs of seven multinational pharmaceutical companies have announced that they are taking joint action to achieve near-term emissions reduction targets and accelerate the delivery of net zero health systems.
From next year, GSK’s top management will be led by a double female team, a pioneering move for the global pharmaceutical industry. The UK drugs giant this week announced the appointment of Julie Brown, the first woman to be its chief financial officer.
British-multinational consumer products giant Unilever has announced that its chief executive, Alan Jope, will retire at the end of 2023. The potentially earlier than planned departure announcement had been anticipated.
CureVac and GSK have announced they are launching a Phase 1 clinical trial with their modified mRNA-based Covid 19 vaccine CV051, which would be recommended as a booster to protect against the omicron variant.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has greenlit GSK’s Priorix-branded GSK’s mumps and rubella vaccine (MMR) for people 12 months and older. It is only the second such shot to be licensed for US distribution in more than 50 years. Merck & Co’s MMR-II vaccine was approved by the FDA for the pediatric application in 1971.
Pfizer is set to start divesting its 32% stake in Haleon, the consumer health joint venture with GSK, when the British pharma completes the company’s spinoff and Haleon begins trading on the London Stock Exchange on July 18.
Major UK pharmaceutical producer GlaxoSmithKline is slimming down not only by spinning off its consumer health business. It is also shedding excess verbiage by trimming its name to the three-letter acronym the company is known by, GSK.
British drugs giant GlaxoSmithKline is facing what could be the first industrial action in its history. Some 86% of its employees organized in the trade union Unite at manufacturing sites across the UK voted last week to go on strike, rejecting a pay increase of 4%.
British drugs giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is buying US cancer treatment developer Sierra Oncology for £1.5 billion in a deal observers see as designed to fend off pressure from activist shareholder Elliott Management, which has been pushing the company to expand its pipeline.
Germany’s economics ministry has budgeted up to €2.9 billion ($3.14 billion) to ensure sufficient supply of mostly mRNA-based Covid-19 vaccines to be able to deal with the ongoing pandemic and any future outbreaks up to 2029.
The US Centers for Disease Control and the Food and Drug Administration have removed the IV antibody treatment sotrovimab made by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and Vir Biotechnology from the list of approved drug therapies for Covid-19.
The Covid-19 vaccine Covifenz made by Canada’s Medicago, approved for use in the country in February, has been rejected for review by the World Health Organization (WHO) on grounds that the company is partly owned by tobacco company Philip Morris.
Health Canada has approved the recombinant Covid-19 vaccine produced by Canadian biotech Medicago that uses the pandemic adjuvant made by British pharma giant GlaxoSmithKline. The shot marketed as Covifenz uses a plant-based virus-like particles technology to imitate the coronavirus’ spike protein.
After several delays, Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline are preparing to submit data to regulatory authorities to support approval of their adjuvanted protein vaccine against Covid-19.
British pharmaceuticals major GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is now proceeding full speed ahead with plans to spin off its consumer health unit. The procedure is being accelerated after management rejected Unilever’s $68 billion takeover offer as too low, and the London-based international consumer products giant said it would not reopen negotiations.
The pharma industry’s poaching season is on, though some say it’s never off, just taking a break. In the latest drugmaker-to-drugmaker side-swap, among the top news this week was that Bayer has hired away GlaxoSmithKline’s head of oncology therapy, Christine Roth, just as the UK pharma was seen to be reestablishing its position in cancer therapeutics.
Unilever’s CEO Alan Jope has had to bury his hopes of buying GlaxoSmithKline’s consumer drugs portfolio. After shareholders questioned the move, and analysts said that due to the relatively low price its third offer, worth £50 billion, was “as good as dead, the London-based consumer giant pulled the plug. Now it looks as if the CEO may face more trouble, as an activist investor has stepped into the fray.
GlaxoSmithKline said it has received and rejected three bids from consumer products giant Unilever to acquire its consumer drugs arm. The latest offer, worth £50 billion (£41.7 billion in cash and £8.3 billion in Unilever shares), fundamentally undervalues" the business,” the UK pharma said.
