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Hi stilo,

Further to them presenting their cosmetic skin care brand Stiefel into the lucrative Chinese market I was also quite happy to receive an email update from GSK on Dec 16 advising that their CEO Andrew Witty has just been appointed by the UK Government as a Board Member for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.

"This appointment forms part of a wider announcement by the Government to create Boards for each Department, including representation from the commercial private sector"

Click here for all current GSK news and media releases

As was posted a few days back, "Big Pharma continues to restructure its internal R&D departments as part of widespread cost-cutting measures to help reduce the impact of the impending 2011 patent cliff. To fill pipeline voids with new products, companies continue to make acquisitions and form partnerships with small pharma, biotech companies and academia, although the relationships between each are becoming increasingly dynamic.

GlaxoSmithKline was by far the most active Big Pharma player. While many of its Big Pharma peers have participated in large M&A deals over the past 2 years, GlaxoSmithKline has thus far preferred to focus on incorporating externally acquired products into its pipeline.

And in addition to that previous post...

"Big pharma's impoverished pipeline is forcing it to pay stunning prices for acquisitions and this is no secret. What is less evident is the way this neediness is changing the face of partnering. With more buyers in the market, including potential acquirers, pharma is under greater pressure not only to cut partnering deals that give biotechs a greater commercial presence, but also to grant biotechs more favorable licensing terms.

The people outlicensing are asking far more questions because they are in a position to be pickier, says Paul McCubbin, head of business development at London-based BTG, a company that sources products externally for in-house development, then turns around and outlicenses them for late-stage development and commercialization.