Overhaul drug pricing to be a 'superpower' - GSK boss

GSK's outgoing chief executive, Emma Walmsley, has warned that Britain would struggle to be a "life sciences superpower" unless it overhauled drug pricing.

- Julia Kollewe

As ministers draw up proposals to raise the amount the NHS spends on new medicines by up to 25%, Walmsley said she was "hopeful and ambitious" that the standoff with the pharma industry could be resolved.

According to the Academy of Medical Sciences, the government's drug pricing announcement could come by the end of this week.

Walmsley, who will hand over the top job to Luke Miels, currently GSK's chief commercial officer, at the end of the year, said: "What everyone is putting their energy into is how we make sure this country creates the right commercial environment.

"Without that, it's going to be very difficult to be a leading life sciences superpower, which is what we want ... and we are not going to secure something else we all want, which is patient access to innovation."