Company Overview

The days when GlaxoSmithKline was the world’s largest manufacturer of pharmaceuticals are gone. Still, the European pharmaceutical behemoth has an array of key drugs in some of the most profitable markets: anti-infectives, central nervous system and respiratory therapeutics, and medicines for gastrointestinal and metabolic conditions. Its research staff numbers about 15,000 people who work in 22 facilities around the world. The company is responsible for a quarter of the world’s vaccines. As of February 2007, 23 vaccines were in development.

GlaxoSmithKline’s current challenges include generic competition for a number of its popular drugs that are no longer under patent protection, such as Zantac, Paxil, and Wellbutrin. But there’s a lot to look forward to at GlaxoSmithKline. It has many drugs in the clinical stage of development, with a number of potential blockbusters, and its list of drugs on the market includes a number of very familiar names. Among the top sellers are the asthma drug Advair, the antiviral medications Combivir and Valtrex, Imitrex for migraines, and Augmentin, an antibiotic. Hycamtin, for use in late-stage cervical cancer, was approved in 2006.                
That same year, 155 million albendazole tablets were donated with the purpose of eliminating lymphatic filariasis (elephantiasis), and 206 million tablets of preferentially-priced HIV treatment drug were shipped to developing countries.

In February 2008, GlaxoSmithKline reduced the price of the HIV medication it provides on a not-for-profit basis to the world’s poorest countries. In 1997, the company introduced a radical preferential pricing policy. The latest price cut is the fifth time GlaxoSmithKline offered a newly reduced rate.
 
GlaxoSmithKline has been increasing its vaccine production capacity, particularly with its 2005 acquisitions of vaccine producer ID Biomedical, and Corixa, which makes an ingredient used in a number of vaccine products, as well as its expansion of facilities in France, Germany, and Singapore. The company also manufactures consumer products like toothpaste and denture care items, rehydration beverages, and aids to help people quit smoking. One major outlay in 2006 did not involve research, development or acquisition: The company's U.S. division settled a tax dispute with the IRS for $3.1 billion, reputedly the largest single payment in IRS history.