Shortly after Sanofi upgraded its digs, another European pharma bigwig is setting its sights on a new home base.
GSK will be moving on up to a new global headquarters in central London, the British pharma said Monday. The company will move to the new HQ from its current location in Brentford in west London in 2024.
The new HQ will host around 3,000 people under a continued hybrid working model, the company explained in a release. Staff at the site will include GSK’s global leadership team, plus those supporting research and development, supply chain and commercial operations.
The new site is currently under construction, with the project expected to wrap up sometime in 2023. GSK picked the location after a “comprehensive search of potential new HQ sites across London,” the company explained in a release.
The real estate puts GSK close to London’s Knowledge Quarter life sciences hub, as well as GSK’s longtime partners at the Francis Crick Institute and King’s College London. The site also offers “easy access” to GSK’s global R&D hub in Stevenage, plus it puts the company closer to its artificial intelligence and machine learning hub in King’s Cross.
The building's design and proximity to public transportation support GSK’s focus on environmental sustainability, the company said. To build the site, GSK is working with “specialist architects” with know-how in designing “accessible, inclusive and sustainable workspaces.” Aside from being designed around hybrid working, the site will take its environmental footprint into consideration, with a focus on energy consumption, health and well-being and reduced CO2 emissions.
As GSK eyes its new digs, the company is proceeding with the sale of its existing global HQ in Brentford, noting it will provide an update “at a later date.”
GSK’s relocation plans come shortly after French pharma Sanofi officially moved into a swanky new global home base in Paris dubbed La Maison Sanofi. Sanofi’s HQ is also designed around “new hybrid ways of working" and boasts an emphasis on energy efficiency.
La Maison Sanofi represents a big leap in the company’s global push to modernize its workspaces around the world. In a recent release, Sanofi highlighted other new sites that embody the “same spirit” in Cambridge Crossing near Boston plus other French sites in Paris and Lyon.