Pharmaceutical giants Pfizer and GlaxoSmithkline have merged their respective departments that develop medication to treat HIV to create a new, separate company.
The new company will have a 19%, £1.6bn, global market share in HIV and AIDS medication. The as yet unnamed new unit will be 85-15 weighted in favour of GSK in terms of ownership.
“Today marks a definitive step by GSK to renew our focus and deliver more medicines, more efficiently, to people living with HIV/Aids,” said GSK chief Andrew Witty
“At the core of this specialist business is a broad portfolio of products and pipeline assets, which can be more effectively leveraged through the new company’s strong revenue base and dedicated research capability.”
Pfizer from the US and GSK from the UK are two of the largest drugs and biotechnology companies in the world, ranking 50 and 92 in the Forbes Global 2000 respectively.
