• Home
• Responsibility
• CR Report 2005
• Research

Research

Research and development (R&D) of new medicines and vaccines is at the core of our business, and makes a significant contribution to society.

New medicines and vaccines have brought huge benefits to the health and quality of life of millions of people over the last 100 years. But continued R&D remains as important as ever. There are still many serious, debilitating and life threatening illnesses for which there are no effective treatments or where treatments could be significantly improved.

In 2005 we invested £3.1 billion ($5.6 billion) and employed over 15,000 people in R&D. Our goal is to build the best product pipeline in the industry. Our research aims to meet unmet medical needs. Our pipeline includes compounds with the potential to make a major contribution to healthcare in developing countries (see Access to medicines). Although this work is essential, there is often little or no return on investment for new treatments in this area. We seek partners to help fund these projects.

Throughout the R&D process we seek the views of patients to inform our research. Focusing on patient needs drives innovation which brings commercial success. See more on our pipeline and drug development process.

We recognise that biomedical and pharmaceutical research raises ethical concerns - from the use of new technologies to the objective reporting of clinical trial results. We are committed to attaining high ethical and scientific standards in all our R&D work. This section explains our approach to:

• Animal research, and our efforts to reduce, refine and replace animal testing.
• The conduct of clinical trials. How we ensure GSK-sponsored clinical trials are carried out to the same ethical standards irrespective of where they are conducted.
• Training and auditing for clinical trials. How we train GSK employees involved in clinical trials and how we check that trials are carried out to Good Clinical Practice (GCP) standards.
• Clinical trial information and results. How we publicly disclose trial information and results through journal articles, the GSK Clinical Trial Register and other public databases.

For background information on our approach to new technologies see Ethical issues in R&D.

Back to top