Getting ahead of disease - together

The first funeral I ever attended was for a good friend who died of HIV/AIDS.

It was, of course, desperately sad, but at that time – the early 1990s – treatments were in their infancy and the prognosis for many who contracted the virus was grim.

Fast forward to today and life for a person living with HIV is fundamentally different. The reason? Medicines – including those pioneered and currently made by GSK - have transformed the?condition into a chronic one, with many people living long and fulfilling lives. The daily cocktail of pills has been gradually replaced by smaller numbers of more effective medicines over time, and we are potentially moving towards a future where the daily tablet is replaced by long acting treatments.

And it’s not just HIV – similar advances in treatment have happened in other areas like cancer where today the body’s own defences are being used to fight disease.

Revolutions like these are what make my job such a privilege – and the last 18 months have demonstrated like never before the relevance of life sciences companies.

We are now at the start of an exciting new moment in GSK’s 300-year history as we get ready to launch a new GSK next year which will unite science, talent and technology to get ahead of disease together. This summer we set out our plans to investors for the future of GSK and I’m going to share insights and updates here on our plans to deliver for patients.

Central to that is scientific innovation. It’s why – since becoming CEO – I’ve put science at the heart of the company: so we can discover and develop ground-breaking medicines and vaccines, making them available to patients worldwide faster, protecting people better and helping them fight disease.

For GSK, that means focusing our research on the science of the immune system (which is increasingly recognised for its role in all sorts of conditions), on human genetics and using the power of machine learning to help spot important patterns in?huge datasets. Combining these three areas gives us a multiplier effect and a greater chance of identifying ways to increase numerous novel biological targets with a higher probability of success – vital given that across the industry 90% of medicines entering development typically fail.

Of course, fully capturing the benefits of this approach requires dedicated and talented scientists – and we have outstanding ones at GSK – and are building the culture which allows them to thrive. Since I became CEO, we have delivered real progress on strengthening this culture, with a focus on accountability, ambition and on doing the right thing to deliver for patients and we’re always striving to do more.

This has already produced very significant results and seen 11 major new medicines and vaccines approved since 2017 which are making a difference to people’s lives.

I’m excited to start this conversation about the future of GSK - and by our ability to harness new advances in medicine and vaccine development to help us better prevent and treat disease with enormous positive impact on human health all around the world.?