Pharma

GlaxoSmithKline CEO would consider dividing following the Novartis deal

Should GlaxoSmithKline split up into various smaller companies? Investor Neil Woodford thinks so.

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GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) CEO Andrew Witty has reportedly said that they might break up the company into various smaller companies. This came after some sound advice from investor Neil Woodford of Woodford Investment Management.

Woodford met in October 2015 with Sir Philip Hampton, the chairman of the board of GSK, and urged him to split up the company.

In an interview with BBC’s Radio 5 live’s “Wake up to Money” a few days ago, Woodford shared his insights on the subject, saying that GSK is “like four FTSE 100 companies bolted together” and that it doesn’t “do a particularly good job of managing all of the constituent parts.”

This week at the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference, Witty said he would consider splitting up the company, but not for a year or two because they are busy with the changes following the three deals developed last year with Novartis, according to BioSpace. GSK bought Novartis’s global vaccines business, created a Consumer Healthcare joint venture with Novartis and sold its oncology business to Novartis.

“By bringing these businesses all to real global scale, it for the first time creates the optionality for potentially different structures down the road,” Witty said at the conference. “We certainly have a year or two more of work to finish.”

Photo: Getty Images

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