‘Discovery is an intensely individual activity,’ says GSK chief

The failure of drug companies to produce a new generation of blockbuster drugs over the past decade is a result of the “industrialisation” of the process, Andrew Witty, GlaxoSmithKline chief executive has said.

Speaking in an interview with the Daily Telegraph newspaper on 12 December, Witty said the company has realised that drug discovery is an “individual activity” and that it therefore decided to break up six research centres into much smaller teams.