Andrew Witty

GSK's Witty wants deals, more funds for FDA

Tracy Staton — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 11:07:36 -0400

It must be the day for CEOs to chat. The Financial Times sat down with Andrew Witty (photo), chief of GlaxoSmithKline, and his words for the day were flexibility (on pricing) and diversification (into generics and new acquisitions).

Witty is expecting continued government pressure on prices--downward, of course--as cash-strapped institutions look for places to cut. After the U.S. elections, he said, he hopes that politicians engage in "calm reflection" about drugs, keeping in mind the patients' good. Part of that means deciding how to adopt new technologies while still providing cost-effective treatment. (Sounds like he's expecting to negotiate prices, doesn't it?)

And as for acquisitions, GSK announced along with its 3Q earnings that it was halting share buybacks for the moment to conserve its cash for deals. Witty said his priority now is "to make sure we're invested in the business." And "invested" might mean "some bolt-on acquisitions."

The FT practically invited Witty to thrash the FDA for its newly tough stance on new drug approvals, but he demurred, saying that the agency's attitude reflects society's attitude. And that attitude, for now, is anxious. So pharma needs to focus on delivering more info, he said. And the FDA definitely needs more resources to do its job well.

- read the story at the FT

GSK will cap payments to docs

Tracy Staton — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 11:15:52 -0400

GlaxoSmithKline is joining the queue of drugmakers that will unveil payments to doctors. The drugmaker said it will report the fees it pays to doctors and medical researchers. Plus, the company plans to cap payments to U.S. physicians and academics at $150,000 annually. CEO Andrew Witty (photo) told the Financial Times that the cap will be "without exception" and that all fees that change hands will be published.

As you know, there's been a groundswell of concern about Big Pharma's financial relationships with doctors and researchers. Congressional reps and patient advocates alike have been pushing for greater transparency about the amount of money drugmakers are shelling out. Anticipating federal legislation that would mandate disclosure, companies such as Eli Lilly and Merck have pledged to cough up the information voluntarily.

"It's appropriate that we have a limit on what we pay," Witty told the FT. "In the past, whatever has happened has happened, but in the future there will be strict adherence to these caps, which will be clearer to everybody."

- read the scoop in the FT
- see the Health Blog post

GlaxoSmithKline does better in Q3

Christe Bruderlin-Nelson — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 10:28:57 -0400

GlaxoSmithKline did better than it expected in the third quarter, showing increases in sales and revenue, despite a drop in net profit.

While profit was down $2.1 billion compared to a year ago, revenue was up 7 percent to $9.6 billion. Per share earnings also went up 6 percent to 41 cents a share.

GSK CEO, Andrew Witty (photo), attributes the positive results to the "considerable transition" occurring in its portfolio, but fluctuation of the British Pound also appeared to play a role. Stronger Advair sales helped during the quarter, as well.

The company has held on fairly well in these tough economic times, but is expecting sales to drop for some of its key products, including Avandia for diabetes, the depression med Wellbutrin and its heart medication, Coreg. Avandia is likely to suffer most, due to a newer FDA black box label warning.

The company will be exploring small-to-medium acquisition opportunities, as well as opportunities to diversify, moving forward.

- see the Associated Press story
- read the Wall Street Journal article

Layoffs, consolidation at GSK Consumer Health

Tracy Staton — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 09:14:48 -0400

GlaxoSmithKline is paring away at its Consumer Healthcare unit, with a series of layoffs and cost-cutting consolidations. One big move: the company is combining its weight control group--which markets the Alli weight-loss med--and its smoking cessation group, and transferring the whole thing to New Jersey from Pennsylvania. The combination will be called the behavioral sciences group, a GSK exec told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. "Frankly, there are a lot of similarities in the behavior required to lose weight and stop smoking," she said.

Overall, the Consumer Healthcare division has about 1,200 U.S. employees, 500 of them in Pennsylvania, 400 in New Jersey, and 300 field-sales folks. The company wouldn't specify just how many jobs will be lost in the restructuring-slash-consolidation. You'll recall that some GSK critics were prodding management to sell Consumer Healthcare last year, but new CEO Andrew Witty quashed that idea. It contributed some $2 billion to the company's $45 billion in 2007 sales.

- see the post at Pharmalot
- check out the Post-Gazette piece

GSK's Witty opts out of generics market

Tracy Staton — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 09:24:41 -0400

When it comes to diversifying through generics, count GlaxoSmithKline out. CEO Andrew Witty says he has no interest in duking it out in that marketplace. Not only does generics success depends on low production costs, but also on a sort of street-fighting aggressiveness in challenging other people's patents. If you're first to the party with a drug, you get 180-day exclusivity, which is lucrative, but after that returns drop significantly--and who's always first to every party? "I think it's a tough world to play in," Witty told the Wall Street Journal Health Blog. "We've got far better ways we can create value."

It may be a tough market, but because generics sales are growing at a faster clip than branded meds are, several blue-chip drugmakers have been beefing up their generics ops. Sanofi-Aventis is looking to buy the three-quarters interest in Czech generics maker Zentiva it doesn't own already, for instance, and Daiichi Sankyo is snapping up a majority stake in India's Ranbaxy. But Witty would rather diversify through vaccines and over-the-counter sales, and, of course, in emerging markets. And Witty isn't alone, the Health Blog notes; Roche CEO Severin Schwan isn't big on the generics biz, either.

- see the Health Blog item

ALSO: Witty has seen the future of drug development, and government healthcare systems will play an even bigger role in it. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Witty says that the pharma giant will give government agencies around the world--which pay the lion's share of the drug tab--a bigger voice in deciding which new therapies are advanced in the pipeline. Report

PLUS: GlaxoSmithKline is making ambitious plans to expand its R&D operations in China. Report

Witty: Diversifying and derisking GSK

Tracy Staton — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 10:36:54 -0400

In his first interview as CEO, GlaxoSmithKline's Andrew Witty told the Financial Times he intends to "diversify and derisk" the company. More emphasis on vaccines, non-prescription meds, and consumer health products; less reliance on the pipeline of branded products to come. Rather than divesting GSK's consumer health group--as some had suggested--Witty would expand the company's horizons. "I see absolutely no reason why we would not be in other proximate businesses," he told the FT.

So, Witty has told his team that he wants "ambitious increases" in sales growth for vaccines and consumer health. And he's asking for big targets in emerging markets including Brazil, Russia, India and China--which sounds like a different story, but Witty says it isn't. He believes that brand-building in emerging markets, whether to sell patented meds or generics or consumer health products, ends up benefiting the company across the board.

But don't read this emphasis on diversity to mean that GSK will take its eye off branded drugs, Witty emphasizes. He's still bent on getting as many late-stage meds to market as possible within the next 12 months.

- see the FT interview

Who are pharma's true VIPs?

Tracy Staton — Fri, 23 May 2008 10:57:38 -0400

You mean you don't know? Helpfully, a trade magazine has ranked them for you. The 40 most influential people in pharma--and they're not always the people you'd expect. In fact, FDA Commissioner Andy von Eschenbach didn't make the list. Who did? Carl Icahn, for one. The highest ranking CEO was (drum roll, please) Genentech's Arthur Levinson at the number two spot. GlaxoSmithKline's new CEO Andrew Witty came in came in at number six. Other familiar names include Bill and Melinda Gates (3), Janet Woodcock (18), Warren Buffett (25)and J. Craig Venter (27). You'll have to read the list to get the rest.

- check out the list and article in World Pharmaceuticals (.pdf)
- see the Pharmalot item

GSK shuffles execs in operations overhaul

Thu, 01 May 2008 06:59:58 -0400

If anyone doubted Andrew Witty's (photo) professed faith in emerging markets, those doubts can be put to rest. The incoming GlaxoSmithKline CEO lured Eli Lilly's Abbas Hussein to spearhead a new unit charged with building business in China, Russia, Brazil, India and the Middle East.

Until now, GSK had lumped all countries outside the U.S., Europe, and Japan into one big "International" basket. The new structure is designed to focus more attention on once-neglected markets, Witty said, where pharma growth rates could someday triple those in Western nations. "A key element of this new team's remit will be to proactively seek new business opportunities to expand our global reach and drive sales growth," he said.

Meanwhile, Witty has combined U.S., Canadian, and Puerto Rican ops into one North American division, to be headed by U.S. unit president Chris Viehbacher (photo). GSK's Japan honcho Marc Dunoyer will take command of a new Asia Pacific group. And former northern European ops chief David Redfern will take a new job that's trendy among Big Pharma firms these days: chief strategy officer.

- here's GSK's release
- read the brief in the Philadelphia Inquirer
- check out the Wall Street Journal's coverage
- see the story in the Financial Times

Pharma CEOs mull industry "trust deficit'

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 06:59:57 -0400

We love it when pharma CEOs depart from their usual talking points about financial results and restructurings and pipelines, to wax philosophical on their place in the word. This week, we heard an entire trio musing on the state of the industry: Merck chief Richard Clark, GlaxoSmithKline's putative chief Andrew Witty (photo), and Pfizer's Jeff Kindler (photo). Some choice bits:

Pharma's equilibrium is "shattered," Witty told the Academy of Medical Sciences this week. To fix it, drug makers need to listen more--and talk more--particularly with drug buyers (about the true value of new meds) and with government. Pharma and regulators are "like two ships missing in the night," he said.
"There is a trust deficit we have to fix," Merck's Clark told The Star Ledger, when asked about lessons learned from the Vytorin controversy. "I think everyone has a lesson to be learned from this. Drug makers "may have to become more transparent" about their spending and their relationships with docs, he said.
"There's a lot of public concern about the pharmaceutical industry," Kindler told the Wall Street Journal. "But...everybody recognizes that you can't solve the healthcare reform problem without an innovative, healthy pharmaceutical industry. We have to be a part of the solution." He went on to talk about truth-telling: "It's important for the industry to communicate with integrity and to do everything it can do to insure the integrity of the data and the science."

Sounds like these guys are all picking up on the same vibe: communication, transparency, telling the truth. And that they recognize that the "shattered equilibrium" and "truth deficit" need to be fixed. What will they do to make that happen, that's the question.

- check out the Witty story in the Financial Times
- see the Clark interview in the Star-Ledger
- read Pharmalot's take on Clark's remarks
- read the WSJ's Q&A with Kindler

Related Article:
Say goodbye to Big Pharma's gilded age

GSK CEO also-rans may get on board

Tue, 16 Oct 2007 06:59:58 -0400

Last week, the buzz about GlaxoSmithKline's CEO-presumptive Andrew Witty included worries that his internal competitors for the top slot would jump ship. Now Glaxo may sweeten the pot for those also-rans--by putting them on the board of directors.

The move would benefit Glaxo two ways: One, it might induce David Stout and Chris Viehbacher--both experienced execs--to stick around. Two, it would increase the proportion of execs to non-execs on the board; now, only three of the 14 directors are company types.

Meanwhile, there's talk in the executive suite about other ways to retain the two men. More responsibility, perhaps. More money, too. But as nothing has been decided yet, Glaxo's only official word is "no comment."

- check out the Financial Times report

Related Articles:
Just who is Glaxo's Andrew Witty? Report
GSK taps Witty as next CEO. Report
At GSK, a public race for the top spot. Report
GSK chief shrugs off growing criticism. Report
Riled investors look for big changes at GSK. Report

Read more on: GSK

Just who is Glaxo's Andrew Witty?

Tue, 09 Oct 2007 06:59:58 -0400

If yesterday was Andrew Witty's debut as heir apparent to the GlaxoSmithKline CEO suite, then today is the morning-after gossip session about his prospects. Here's a sampling:

He's young--just 43--so he has the luxury of thinking long-term strategy; he could be at Glaxo's helm for 20 years.
He has his work cut out for him, considering Glaxo's stock decline over the past six years. Investors are impatient.
He's a details man, but not a control freak
He's a motivator, a visionary
He's passionate about unlocking value
His international experience will serve him in good stead as Glaxo looks to expand in Asia
If he's so charismatic, why doesn't he step up to the mike?

And so on. As with any executive appointment, this one raises as many questions as it answers. All the Monday-morning quarterbacking in the world won't predict exactly how his tenure will unfold. But who doesn't love to speculate?

- see the article from the San Diego Union Tribune
- read this Financial Times report
- here's the Telegraph's skeptical commentary
- read what analysts think of Witty

Related Articles:
GSK taps Witty as next CEO. Report
At GSK, a public race for the top spot. Report
GSK chief shrugs off growing criticism. Report
Riled investors look for big changes at GSK. Report
GSK chief outlines big plans in R&D. Report

GSK taps Witty as next CEO

Mon, 08 Oct 2007 06:59:58 -0400

It's a changing of the guard--in more ways than one. GlaxoSmithKline has appointed Andrew Witty (photo), now president of the company's European pharma division, to succeed Jean-Pierre Garnier as CEO in May. Witty has spent his entire career at Glaxo, with stints in South Africa, the U.S., and Asia. Analysts said he'd been able to grow sales significantly in Europe despite pricing pressures--an ability that may help him in the U.S. as well.

Witty, 43, will also have to contend with that little problem known as Avandia. The embattled diabetes drug has helped depress Glaxo's stock by 8 percent since news of safety concerns emerged in May. And because he was selected over two key Glaxo execs--who very well might leave the company now--he may soon be on a recruitment quest.

As the youngest internal candidate for the job, Witty may also represent a generational shift in the company and the industry as a whole. Roche appointed 40-year-old Severin Schwan as its new chief just three months ago.

- check out the release from Glaxo
- read the article from the Financial Times

Related Articles:
At GSK, a public race for the top spot. Report
GSK chief shrugs off growing criticism. Report
Riled investors look for big changes at GSK. Report
GSK chief outlines big plans in R&D. Report