INTERVIEW bmj.com/podcasts Listen to a podcast interview with Andrew Witty at bmj.com/multimedia ANDREW WITTY The acceptable face of big pharma? Following GlaxoSmithKline’s announcement that it will open up its research data, Rebecca Coombes spoke to CEO Andrew Witty about his attempts to change the company GEOFFPUGH/THE TELEGRAPH DAILY rug company bosses have a tough time GSK badly needs this shot of good publicity: look in the mirror around, ‘What do I want to do getting positive headlines. As reputa- last year it was fined $3bn (£2bn; €2.3bn) in the with this job?’ And the answer in my mind was tions go, they usually have to be con- United States for selling the antidepressant drug to change the way we operate—and try as a con- tent to rub shoulders with bankers and paroxetine (Paxil) for unapproved use in children, sequence to change the industry, although I can’t oil executives. So it was surprising that concealing safety evidence from the Food and control that.” Da member of this tribe was recently singled out Drink Administration (FDA) on its leading diabe- Witty wants to reform GSK in three areas; data for praise by one of the industry’s harshest critics. tes product, and offering doctors lavish incentives transparency, access to medicines, and intellec- In a spectacular public relations coup last to promote its medicines.2 More of this later, but tual property. On the last two, he can point to month, Andrew Witty, chief executive officer the fine stands as the largest in US history for a inroads in developing countries—for example, of Britain’s biggest drug company, GlaxoSmith- drug company. changing the drug pricing structure that blighted Kline, announced the company was to make huge GSK’s anti-AIDS treatment in Africa. The com- swathes of its research data public.1 By signing Fresh approach pany is trialling the first child malaria vaccine, GSK up to AllTrials, the campaign that urges drug At 48, Witty is on the young side to lead a multi- one that when approved Witty decrees will not companies to disclose detailed clinical study national company, one with nearly 100 000 be sold for profit. “In some situations we develop reports as well as the results of all drug trials— employees in more than 100 countries. He’s medicines and we need to get a strong economic not just the ones with favourable results—Witty part of a new breed of company bosses, comfort- return, and in others we develop a vaccine like seemed to be ushering in a glorious new era of able talking about his ideals, his love of Asia and malaria where we’re not looking for an economic openness. Africa, and the need for corporate openness. He’s return and it’s part of our global contribution.” Ben Goldacre, doctor, AllTrials campaign even, whisper it, said the word “sorry” for some Witty also set up a patent pool for neglected dis- leader, and author of Bad Pharma, which fiercely of his company’s past misdemeanours. Could eases to stimulate drug development in this field. critiques the industry, called it “a cartwheel Witty be the acceptable face of “big pharma”? moment.” An economics graduate from Nottingham Transparency Back in October, Witty had also committed GSK University, Witty has spent his entire career at The costs of these initiatives won’t trouble GSK’s to make anonymised patient level data from clini- GSK. He shrugs off the charge that he’s a chief balance sheet. The business is in pretty good cal trials available to researchers. executive bred in captivity, lacking the long range shape under Witty—in 2012, GSK reported pre- perspective to reform such a mammoth organi- tax profits of £6.7bn. However, Witty’s drive sation. On the contrary, says Witty, his strength towards transparency is not without risk. If GSK SOME WITTY FACTS comes from spending most of his career at arm’s is truly opening up the data vaults—and the proof • Witty is 48 years old length from GSK’s polished glass headquarters is still very much in the pudding—this means • He joined Glaxo UK in 1985 in London. the release of potentially unflattering trial data as a management trainee, “I’m what business school would call an ‘out- to doctors and patients that could threaten the straight from Nottingham sider insider.’” By this he means he’s always been reputation of its highly profitable blockbuster University, where he read economics on the edges of GSK’s empire. “I was never really drugs. Will shareholders tolerate the CEO shar- in the centre. I spent a lot of my career in Africa, ing research data on a drug in the middle of a 10 • In 2011, Witty’s base salary was £1m (€1.2m; $1.5m) and his bonus was £2m in Asia, and that more than anything really influ- year cycle of sales? enced the way I think about the world. Of course, the jury is still out on whether GSK • Since Witty became CEO in 2008, GSK’s share “When you’re in charge of an organisation, will make good on this new transparency pledge. price has increased by 25% you’re not just in charge of delivering the next bit When the BMJ met Witty last month, the com- • In 2012, GSK’s pre-tax profits were £6.7bn of output or the next quarter. You’re in charge of pany was about to undergo its first real test of this • Witty was knighted in the 2012 New Year trying to set its culture and the philosophy. When commitment. Buoyed by GSK’s announcements, honours list I was told I had the job, I took a very deliberate independent researchers from the Cochrane 16 BMJ | 9 MARCH 2013 | VOLUME 346 INTERVIEW MARTINGODWIN/GUARDIAN MEDIANEWS& LTD Witty has spent his entire 28 year career at the some retired staff equipped with a long corporate ether that others are moving in this direction. But company, mostly in Africa (right) and Asia and memory, to deal with requests going back to the of course there is a spectrum of view; there are not at the London headquarters (above) company’s formation in 2000. some people who are probably closer to our posi- “Our intent is to be comprehensive and not tion and some maybe less close.” Collaboration reignited a three year long cam- partial, right? We are going to try and have paign to extract research data on the company’s as much [as possible] out there in the public Past problems leading influenza drug zanamivir (Relenza). domain. And absolutely judge us, but we are Whether data transparency is a matter of honour A full analysis of trial reports would allow going to do it. for Witty, or a canny way to reverse GSK’s reputa- Cochrane’s independent academics to answer “We are going to create a dedicated organisa- tional misfortunes, we can’t tell. The company’s questions about the benefits of zanamivir. A tion with the sole job of going back and finding reputation certainly hit the doldrums in July similar review of Roche’s oseltamivir (Tamiflu) all these documents, putting them together so 2012, with its record $3bn US fine for market- is planned for this year. There are longstanding that you can go to one trial and say, here’s every- ing breaches, including withholding safety data concerns that these drugs have thing you need. The priority will on rosiglitazone (Avandia), the company’s best been overhyped. True to its word, I want to change the be the most heavily prescribed selling diabetes drug. These shocking transgres- GSK has now sent Cochrane way we operate—and drugs first, so we can get the sions were in Witty’s in-tray when he took over clinical study reports—some try as a consequence to data out there for the things that as chief executive officer in 2008—Frenchman 15 000 pages of data—on zan- change the industry are affecting the most people.” Jean-Pierre Garnier had led the company during amivir. However, the team was Witty says he’s not afraid of the period covered by the fine. The final settle- dismayed to find the data heavily redacted in new adverse effects in any of these drugs com- ment last year was, says Witty, “the full stop mark parts—including the removal of all patient identi- ing to light as the result of independent scrutiny on an end of a lot of historic activity.” fier numbers—and is assessing if these omissions of trial data. “We were determined to make sure it never make the data impossible to interpret. “My absolute view is if we’ve missed some- happens again.” These humble words are tem- Nevertheless, Witty is adamant he wants to thing in our analysis it’s got to be better for pered with a touch of bullishness: he wants to be change the way GSK operates and that transpar- every body for it to be spotted. I don’t believe for a “precise” about where GSK erred over Avandia. It ency is a key element of this reform. This month second there is any malintent in any part of GSK. wasn’t that GSK deliberately withheld safety data the company opens a web portal through which But I can’t rule out that we sometimes get things from the Food and Drug Administration in the researchers can access the research data once wrong, make mistakes, or just look at the data in US, he says, but that some data were not submit- they’re given the green light from a GSK panel, a different way to other people,” he says.