Glaxo may cut R&D spending
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Your support makes all the difference.Sir Richard Sykes, chief executive of Glaxo, refused to guarantee to a House of Commons committee yesterday that research and development spending at a merged Glaxo Wellcome would continue at the 15 per cent of sales level that is a drugs industry median.
He told the cross-party Science and Technology committee that it was difficult to give a precise figure. But he said the merged company would continue to be driven by R&D and that it would spend what was necessary for its needs.
The investment in R&D has been one of the most aggressively argued issues since Glaxo launched its £9.4bn hostile bid for Wellcome late last month.
Sir Richard said Glaxo would spend £800m on research this year but it was difficult to do this in a dramatically changing drugs market place where leading companies had less than a 4 per cent market share.
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