‘More in the hopper’: GSK chief exec Emma Walmsley
The boss of pharma giant GSK has confirmed the group is hunting for more acquisitions as it looks to boost its pipeline of new drugs.
On a call discussing the FTSE 100 firm’s first quarter results, chief executive Emma Walmsley said the company had ‘more in the hopper’ as it scoped out new takeover targets.
The comments followed a swoop by the pharma firm earlier this month on Bellus Health in a deal that valued the Canadian drugmaker at £1.6billion.
It was the largest takeover since GSK spun out its consumer health arm Haleon last summer as part of a strategy by Walmsley to focus on new and profitable medicines to treat cancer and other illnesses, after years of criticism about the company’s performance.
The takeover of Bellus also followed the purchase last year of cancer drug maker Sierra Oncology and vaccine maker Affinivax for £1.5billion and £2.7billion respectively.
‘We are absolutely delighted with the deals we have announced in the last couple of months, we do intend to do more,’ the chief executive said.
‘There is more in the hopper, but obviously we cannot share details on that.’
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