With just a few years to turn the group around, the boss could do without a bellicose hedge fund breathing down her neck
Few companies fit with the national zeitgeist quite like drugs giant GlaxoSmithKline. But few face the cocktail of pressures Dame Emma Walmsley, chief executive at Britain’s second-biggest drugmaker, is wrestling with. In post since 2017, she is under immense pressure from one of the most aggressive investors on the planet, New York-based hedge fund Elliott Management – famous for chasing Argentina over its sovereign debts for more than decade.
GSK, known for products ranging from HIV treatments to toothpaste, recently won plaudits when its malaria vaccine was approved by the World Health Organization. Chancellor Rishi Sunak boasted at the Tory party conference this month about building the UK into a “science superpower”. That vision depends on companies such as GSK converting its pipeline into drug successes.
