GSK queen waits for the wind again

Author: Yu Jian

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) recently released its 2021 semi-annual report, operating income was 15.
510 billion pounds, down 7.
2% year-on-year; net profit attributable to ordinary shareholders of the parent company was 2.
468 billion pounds, down 35.
53% year-on-year; performance growth was weak , Making GSK leave the global TOP10 pharmaceutical company club
.

The industry "suggests that the CEO dismiss the class" voices are endless.
Some people even think that GSK's spin-off of the consumer health products business to Brian McNamara is an act of cutting down on Dame Emma Walmsley, who was born in the health products business
.

Take office

Emma has lived in China for more than three years, and has a very western Chinese name called "Wei Ai Ma".
During that time, she was the vice president of L'Oréal China and the head of the Chinese consumer business department
.

In April 2014, three companies, GSK, Novartis, and Eli Lilly, carried out huge asset replacements
.

In 2016, GSK announced that Emma has been appointed as the CEO-designate of GSK Global, replacing Andrew Witty who is about to retire
.

For GSK, which had nearly 100,000 employees at that time, appointing a female CEO was a brave decision
.

According to public information, GSK took more than half a year to select a suitable CEO, and finally excluded many vice presidents (VPs) with rich experience in pharmaceutical business, production management and compliance, and finally appointed a cosmetics salesperson.
Emma
.

At the UK headquarters with an average working experience of 15 years+, Emma, ​​who has only joined GSK for 6 years and was previously responsible for consumer health care (toothpaste, cold medicines, and nutritional products and other over-the-counter drugs), which is almost all non-core business, took office
.

campaign

On April 1, 2017, Emma successfully completed the handover with her predecessor.
At the age of 48, she officially became the global CEO of GSK
.

In Emma's view, although the healthcare industry is an attractive sunrise industry, it is also entering an unprecedented period of major changes in which challenges and opportunities coexist
.

GSK's operating results in recent years

According to the 2017 financial report released by GSK, in Emma's first year as CEO, group sales were 30.
2 billion pounds, an increase of 8% based on real exchange rates, and pharmaceuticals, vaccines and consumer health businesses all achieved growth
.

In addition to the dazzling financial data, GSK also gained a lot in drug development in the same year, especially in vaccine development, respiratory diseases and HIV treatment to achieve the world's top level
.
For example, its newly developed shingles vaccine Shingrix received regulatory approval for the market; Juluca, the first dual therapy against HIV in history, received FDA approval; and the chronic pulmonary obstruction (COPD) triple inhalation preparation Trelegy Ellipta was approved
.

At the same time, Emma has quite a set of organizational structure management
.
Although he has a marketing background, he attaches great importance to innovation and research and development
.
On the one hand, GSK's R&D investment has increased significantly compared to before; on the other hand, Dr.
Hal Barron has been newly appointed as GSK's Chief Scientific Officer and R&D President
.
Hal comes from Calico, which is invested by Alphabet, a life and health company under Google.
He previously served as Senior Vice President of R&D and Chief Medical Officer (CMO) at Roche (Genentech)
.

According to the GSK board of directors, before officially assuming the role of CEO in April, Emma began to study how to develop the company under the support and guidance of the board of directors
.
She met with every director of the board of directors, solicited their views on the company, and met with employees, external consultants and media commentators at all business levels to obtain a wide range of opinions and suggestions
.

After several months of research, Emma discussed her ideas with the GSK executive team in a joint strategy meeting in June of the same year, and finally confirmed the three keywords of "innovation, performance and trust" in July.
, And redesigned all board documents to align with the new business priorities
.

Emma said at the time that, as a CEO, her report in the next few years will also add the three major assessment indicators of innovation, performance and trust
.
She even said that by sticking to these three rules, GSK's business can continue to grow until 2020
.

As we all know, Seretide/Advair, an inhalant for the treatment of asthma and chronic obstructive pneumonia, is a super blockbuster product of GSK
.
With the expiration of the Seretide/Advair patent, the competition for generic drugs has intensified.
The performance of this product has been declining in recent years.
By 2020, its sales have been less than half of Emma's time in office
.
Despite the difficulties, Emma has fulfilled its commitment to the board of directors under the new products, and her performance has achieved continuous growth since she took office to 2020
.

Especially in 2019, GSK's operating income exceeded 33 billion pounds, an increase of nearly 10%
.
As a recognition and feedback for Emma's work, the board of directors also offered a higher total compensation than the previous CEO
.
According to industry insiders, Emma is a very enthusiastic and resolute leader, and his calm and decisive aura is not lost to any male leader
.

At the end of 2019, Emma was also nominated as a member of the board of directors by Microsoft Corporation
.
As the world's most influential business woman, Emma's entry into the Microsoft board of directors is also regarded by the industry as the arrival of the era of integration of traditional medicine industry and IT big data
.

courage

In 2020, a sudden epidemic disrupted people's lives and at the same time broke the company's expected development rhythm
.
Some companies regarded the epidemic as an opportunity for change, and made adjustments in the first place, quickly building a product pipeline related to the prevention/treatment of the new crown, whether it is product revenue or capital market expectations, they have made a lot of money; some companies have also made adjustments.
I am immersed in the traditional mode of thinking, thinking about how to use the existing advantages to minimize the losses caused by the new crown epidemic
.

If Pfizer is the former type, GSK is obviously the latter type
.
GSK, which has developed influenza vaccines, HPV vaccines, and shingles vaccines, has missed the current star technology mRNA technology, and its vaccine products that have been on the market have also been affected by the new crown epidemic
.
The rate of return created by GSK for shareholders has fallen to the lowest level in history, and Emma's impeachment voices fluctuate from one to the other on the board of directors
.

Is Emma really that bad? In fact, it is not.
In 2020, GSK will obtain 9 important marketing approvals in the fields of respiratory, tumor, HIV and immuno-inflammation, including the new indication of PARP inhibitor Zejula; and the world's first long-term drug for the treatment of HIV.
Approval of Cabenuva for effective injections (only 12 injections per year) and so on
.

At the same time, similar to many historically "dividing a long time, combining a long time and combining a long time," GSK has also launched a two-year adjustment plan: it is preparing to split GSK into two new companies by mid-2022, one focusing on prescription drugs and A new biopharmaceutical company for vaccines; the other is a company focused on consumer healthcare
.

In 2020, Emma was named by Forbes as the “No.
1 most influential business woman in the world” because of her innovative consciousness based on science and consumer insights, as well as the leading brand building and recognition among her peers.
Knowing ability
.

After each multinational pharmaceutical company's financial report is released, the financial report commentary meeting for investors has become a "regular dish
.
" Different from other MNCs, Emma also added some "trivia" to this capital lobbying
.
It can be seen from the official website of GSK that Emma will simultaneously record a financial report explanation video and upload it to the website.
In the video, she is always confident and full of expectations for the company's future
.
You can say that she is immersed in the kingdom of GSK, but when the company's performance is not good, this kind of calm display requires more courage
.

Emma said in the latest video that GSK has set a positive goal.
After the spin-off, it is expected that annual sales growth will exceed 5%.
In the next five years, operating profit will increase by 10% over the same period
.
The new GSK will continue to focus on the development of vaccines and specialty drugs to treat rare and complex diseases
.

Professionals who have had contact with Emma said that even in the male-dominated industry management, Emma's pungent >
.
At the beginning of March of this year, she did not hesitate to fire Moncef Slaoui, the chairman of the board of directors of Galvani Bioelectronics, a subsidiary of Galvani Bioelectronics, who was a well-known figure in the industry.
Head of the vaccine department
.

By next month, it will be the fifth anniversary of Emma's appointment as CEO
.
Looking back at the past five years, China's innovative drugs have ushered in unprecedented prosperity, and their development is in full swing under the integration of policies, capital and talents
.
Before Emma took office, GSK received a high fine of 3 billion yuan in China, and the word "compliance" that has always been hanging over the company's head has also made this multinational pharmaceutical company's presence in the Chinese market more and more Weak
.

Executives in China have also left one after another.
For example, Dr.
Zang Jingwu of Tianjing Biotechnology and Dr.
Hong Zhi of Tengsheng Biopharmaceuticals have all worked at GSK for a long time
.
Gathering is a fire, scattered is a starry sky
.
The innovation-focused corporate culture has also imperceptibly influenced this group of executives, prompting them to continue to explore and innovate in the second half of their careers
.

GSK is also working hard through self-research and external cooperation.
For example, in June this year, it reached a joint development and commercialization cooperation with iTeos Therapeutics on EOS-448 (an anti-TIGIT monoclonal antibody); on the treatment of the new crown, although it missed mRNA platform technology, but GSK is giving full play to its advantages in vaccine adjuvants and neutralizing antibodies to complement the shortcomings of anti-epidemic products
.

Going back to the question at the beginning of the article, looking back at GSK's five-year development, is Emma a good CEO? The answer is self-evident
.
Just as there is no victorious general in a war, there are no CEOs and companies that do not make mistakes in this world
.

Judging from the performance of the latest TOP10 multinational pharmaceutical companies, even if GSK, which has spun off its consumer healthcare business, wants to return to the list, what it needs is just one or two blockbuster products that can reverse its momentum
.
Will God give Emma this luck? Can the board give Emma enough time and trust again?