This is it? GSK rolls out a buzzy new R&D plan long on as­pi­ra­tions and short on per­for­mance goals

Glax­o­SmithK­line set out to kick­start some en­thu­si­asm for its pipeline this morn­ing. But CEO Em­ma Walm­s­ley and her new R&D chief Hal Bar­ron clear­ly have a lot more work cut out for them on that crit­i­cal point.

Its quar­ter­ly re­port high­lights a strat­e­gy in R&D that will be heav­i­ly fo­cused on the im­mune sys­tem and hu­man ge­net­ics — two well es­tab­lished fields that long ago at­tract­ed the at­ten­tion of just about every­one work­ing in drug de­vel­op­ment these days. And they signed up 23andMe — pay­ing $300 mil­lion to buy in and gain ex­clu­sive ac­cess to its da­ta base — to help ex­plore dis­ease rel­e­vant genes, herald­ing a “ma­jor ad­vance” while adding to a slate of al­liances on ge­net­ics the Lon­don-based gi­ant has al­ready com­plet­ed.

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