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Three questions for Andrew Witty

The AGM will see a new Chief Executive Officer take the reins at GSK, Andrew Witty.

Can you tell us about your career
so far?
I joined Glaxo in 1985 and held a variety of sales and marketing positions in the UK - from Sales Representative to Director of Pharmacy and Distribution. After a spell in our International New Products Group I moved to Johannesburg as Managing Director of Glaxo South Africa, before moving to the USA to become Vice President and General Manager, Marketing for Glaxo Wellcome. For four years I was based in Singapore as Senior Vice President, Asia Pacific.

In January 2003 I took over as President, Pharmaceuticals Europe and joined the Corporate Executive Team. In October 2007 I was delighted and honoured to be asked to succeed JP Garnier as CEO of GlaxoSmithKline.

How have you been spending your time as CEO designate?
I have been talking to stakeholders both inside and outside of the company and meeting with as many employees as possible - getting under the skin of all areas of the business is really important to me. For example, Consumer is a part of the business in which I have not spent a lot of time working directly, but the more time I spend there, the more excited I am about our capability in this area. I've also been working with JP to prepare for my new role. His support in the past few months has been invaluable and it's been a pleasure to work with him.

One thing I've really noticed as I've travelled around is the passion and energy that the people of GSK have. It's something that reassures me that we have a tremendous group of people who are ready to engage in what is a very difficult environment.

What plans do you have for the future of GSK?
It is too early for me to present my plans for the future, and I want to take advantage of the conversations I am having with stakeholders and employees before I really lock in on that.

But let me say this, the environment that we find ourselves in as a pharmaceutical company is so different from seven or eight years ago that it is almost unrecognisable, whether you look at the impact of regulators, and the way in which they have become more conservative, or the focus of society on what the pharmaceutical industry does. It will be no surprise to you that my plans will focus on engaging with this environment. I believe it will require us to concentrate on how we develop our business model and on the way we operate.

A company like GSK has a special opportunity to develop products to meet unmet medical needs. There remain significant diseases across the world, where vaccination or treatment has the potential to transform the lives of millions. To meet these needs, we have to focus on R&D productivity and this is why the redevelopment of R&D, started by JP seven years ago, is so pivotal to the future of the company. I'm committed to continuing on that journey.

We also need to make sure, that when we bring new medicines and vaccines to market, that we engage with the payers to prove value. We cannot expect them to pay for something where we have not demonstrated value. This is an area that I am particularly keen on developing further.

I am also very focused on resourcing and investing in those areas of our business that represent great growth opportunities, such as vaccines, biopharmaceuticals, oncology, our consumer business of course, and the emerging markets of the world.

Pharmaceutical companies must also continue to play their role in wider aspects of society - for example, in fighting diseases in the developing world. Access to medicine is a terrific example of where GSK continues to take a strong and sustained leadership position. The world needs companies like GSK to deliver medicines for neglected diseases, because if we do not, who will?

Our aim is clear - to ensure that GSK navigates its way through this difficult environment better than anybody else and delivers even more medicines and vaccines of value to patients in the future. That is the direction in which I want to take GlaxoSmithKline forward.

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