Research and development approach
R&D is central to our purpose to get ahead of disease together. By combining the science of the immune system with cutting-edge technology, we can discover and develop new medicines and vaccines to help transform people’s lives.
R&D is at the heart of our innovation
Innovation to help people live not just longer but healthier lives is needed more now than ever before. Populations are ageing, disease burdens are becoming more complex, and health systems are under increasing pressure.
Our R&D approach combines the science of the immune system with advanced technologies, enhanced by targeted business development and world-class partnerships. This approach enables us to develop new medicines and vaccines that can make a difference to patients’ lives, and create value for health systems, shareholders and society.
Patients are at the heart of everything we do – we engage with them and their healthcare providers to deeply understand the impact of disease and deliver innovation where it matters most.
Advances in science and technology mean we’re increasingly able to target the underlying drivers of disease so we can pre-empt, predict and even prevent it. We’re harnessing this powerful convergence of science and technology to create opportunities across our therapeutic areas to prevent and change the course of disease. From lung and liver diseases to cancer, HIV and infectious diseases, we’re working to redefine care and help keep people well.
Our R&D priorities
Three priorities guide our R&D. These priorities are helping us create more focus and opportunity in our pipeline than ever before. Since 2016, our R&D investment has increased by almost 90% and we have more than 60 assets in our pipeline.
Our focus on the science of the immune system
Our R&D approach is based on a deep understanding of the science of the immune system because of its central role in the prevention and treatment of many diseases.
When functioning properly, our immune system protects us from disease. But if something goes wrong, or as we age, it can become less effective and individual cells can start behaving in potentially harmful ways. This can leave us vulnerable to infection, and, in some cases, can lead to development of diseases like chronic inflammatory conditions.
We have deep expertise in how the immune system works and what happens when it stops functioning properly thanks to our extensive clinical trial data, early adoption of human genetics and functional genomics, and significant investment in world-class data and translational collaborations.
We have built one of the world’s largest genetic datasets, giving us end-to-end insight into the underlying biology of disease and the specific cells that play a key role. This informs our R&D, helping us identify the most relevant therapeutic targets and design medicines and vaccines to help treat illness more effectively or potentially pre-empt and prevent it altogether.
How our R&D approach is getting us ahead of disease
Our therapeutic areas
We harness our understanding of the immune system, advanced technologies and world-class partnerships across our four core therapeutic areas: respiratory, immunology and inflammation; oncology; HIV, and infectious diseases.
These are areas where significant patient need remains and where we have the strongest expertise and greatest confidence to deliver differentiated and needed medicines and vaccines to prevent and change the course of disease at scale.
