Exclusive: GSK revamps its research strategy, building three teams to target specific disease spaces

GSK is shaking up the way it does research and created three unique teams zeroing in on vaccines and infectious diseases, respiratory and immunology, and oncology. The changes went live Monday.

Kaivan Khavandi

Kaivan Khavandi is rejoining GSK from BenevolentAI to lead the respiratory and immunology research team. Phil Dormitzer, GSK’s senior vice president and global head of vaccines R&D, will broaden his remit by also covering infectious diseases. And GSK’s senior vice president global head for oncology development, Hesham Abdullah, will stay on as the oncology lead.

John Lepore, the Big Pharma’s head of research, “has decided to move on to a new opportunity in the biotech industry,” per a spokesperson.

Phil Dormitzer

The three teams will be responsible for a variety of initial drug targets all the way to Phase II. Once the asset graduates to Phase III, it will be managed by the company’s development organization. These three teams are in addition to HIV, which has its own team of researchers.

“Our number one priority is to invest in our pipeline and accelerate delivery of new medicines and vaccines for patients,” GSK chief scientific officer Tony Wood said in an emailed statement. “With the investments we have made in advanced technologies, we have built a real competitive advantage. Now we want to embed these even further into drug discovery and research.”

“Building on the progress Tony Wood has already made in R&D, we are making some changes in research to drive focus across our key therapy areas, and to take advantage of new, advanced technologies to accelerate drug discovery and research,” a GSK spokesperson said.

Speaking on respiratory and immunology, Wood added that “this is an area where GSK has had outstanding scientific success, and we have significant new opportunities to come, notably with depemokimab and camlipixant.”

The spokesperson added that GSK’s R&D budget continues to grow. The company invested over £5 billion ($6.2 billion) in R&D last year, which is up 40% since Emma Walmsley became CEO.

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