Amid a Q2 results debut, GSK has also announced a new cost-cutting and UK R&D strategy as recently appointed CEO, Luke Miels, looks to balance the impact of key drug patent expiries and steer the company towards further growth.
Through its new approach, the British pharma giant is hoping to save £1.9bn ($2.5bn) between now and 2029 – a majority of which Miels says will be reallocated to bolstering and accelerating its pipeline through dealmaking, regular portfolio reviews and the acceleration of late-stage R&D programmes to lay the foundations for the company’s mid-to-long-term growth. While GSK’s initiative will involve sweeping job cuts, the company has divulged little detail on who or how many may be impacted.
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GSK debuts this plan as the patent expiry for its big seller, dolutegravir looms closer, with the drug set to lose market exclusivity between 2028 and 2030 in key markets. In Q2 2026 alone, dolutegravir products were one of GSK’s biggest revenue streams, pulling in £1.4bn in total sales across its several combinations – primarily through Dovato (dolutegravir/lamivudine), which generated £749m during the quarter.
As the company moves into a new era, Miels highlighted GSK’s sharpened focus on speciality medicines, with oncology acting as a key driver of future growth. GSK is facilitating this shift towards oncology through several late-stage pipeline efforts, with 11 of the 20 Phase III studies set to initiate in 2026 being in oncology. This includes trials focused on Hansoh Pharma-licensed antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) risvutatug rezetecan (ris-rez) and mocertatug rezetecan (mo-rez), as well as MSD and IDRx-developed tyrosine kinase inhibitor, velzatinib.
In parallel, GSK will run several development programmes in the realm of respiratory disease, with the company planning to begin nine Phase III trials in 2026. This comes as GSK continues to reap the financial rewards of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD) therapy, Nucala (mepolizumab), which joined GSK’s top-selling list for Q2 by raking in £610m in sales.
Zooming out to the broader picture, GSK achieved £8.4bn in total sales during Q2 – a value that was up 5% from the same period last year, above analyst expectations, and primarily driven by the 14% increase in speciality medicine sales to £3.8bn.
GSK makes the move to Cambridge
To further its overall development strategy, GSK is also looking to nestle itself amongst academic, healthcare and biotech players in the key UK hub of Cambridge, with the company opting to shutter operations in Stevenage in favour of a £400m flagship R&D centre within the city’s Biomedical Campus. This new tech-enabled facility, once complete, will be the epicentre of GSK’s UK R&D operations, and will house more than 1,000 scientists.
According to GSK’s CSO, Tony Wood, Cambridge is home to one of the “world’s best life sciences ecosystems”, and the Cambridge Biomedical Campus will provide the company with “exceptional opportunities for collaboration”.
“With our existing connections and experience, we see this move as a catalyst for faster, bolder medicines discovery by accelerating the science that matters most for GSK’s next wave of medicines,” Wood commented.
This investment into UK R&D will be a positive step forward for the British life sciences sector, which is currently looking to win the favour of companies through several government-led initiatives focused on making the UK a one-stop shop for innovation and commercial life sciences activity.
These plans appear to be showing early signs of benefit, as the UK government recently announced that the British life sciences sector attracted more than £3bn in new public-private investment in 12 months following the debut of the Life Sciences Sector Plan.
