GlaxoSmithKline has set out its stall as an independent company by revealing a surge in the number of new drugs close to approval and suggesting that it can beat the long-term targets it set only six months ago.
Sir Andrew Witty, the chief executive of Britain’s biggest pharmaceuticals group, which is understood to have rejected a recent informal approach from Pfizer, claimed that the company could have up to 20 new medicines awaiting final approval from regulators by 2020, seven of which have the potential to be on the market before then.
However, only two of those — a shingles vaccine and an asthma drug — were factored into Glaxo’s target of $6 billion sales from new products and “mid-to-high-single-digit” earnings growth by 2020 announced