Why did GSK kill two vac­cine R&D pro­grams? CEO Em­ma Walm­s­ley is glad you asked

As Glax­o­SmithK­line got deep­er in­to its R&D re­or­ga­ni­za­tion un­der Hal Bar­ron, the phar­ma gi­ant — long known as the pon­der­ous gi­ant, lum­ber­ing from slow fail­ure to slow fail­ure — promised one thing above all: They would speed things up.

If a drug was des­ig­nat­ed as a top pro­gram wor­thy of a big­ger in­vest­ment, they would dou­ble down, as they have with their BC­MA ef­fort in the on­col­o­gy group. If it looked weak or start­ed to go down­hill, there would be an un­sen­ti­men­tal clear­ing of the decks.

If re­sources were freed in one area, they would flow to an­oth­er.

On Wednes­day, GSK CEO Em­ma Walm­s­ley was hap­py to step up to demon­strate how that works in dai­ly prac­tice.