By Simon Hunt
Copyright cityam
GSK has become the latest pharma giant to direct investment away from the UK as it unveiled a new plan to spend $30bn (£22bn) on research and manufacturing facilities in the US.
The London-based business said the capital would be deployed over the next five years and would create hundreds of high-skilled American jobs in areas such as AI and advanced digital technologies.
The investment of £4.4bn per year into the US dwarfs the roughly £1.5bn R&D budget GSK has allocated to the UK, in signs the £60bn behemoth was refocusing its growth plans away from its home market.
The move adds GSK to a growing list of pharma companies who have either cut back on capital spending in the UK or increased it in the US.
Last week, Merck scrapped a planned £1bn research centre in King’s Cross after warning the UK was “not internationally competitive”, while Astrazeneca unveiled a $50bn investment pledge into the US after abandoning plans for a new vaccine plant in the UK.
‘It’s not good’
“There’s no sugarcoating Merck’s decision to leave its planned new HQ in King’s Cross. It’s not good,” said London & Partners CEO Laura Citron.
“Merck points to the UK’s weaknesses in drug pricing and investment in R&D. Fair and important critiques, which we hear frequently in our conversations with international pharma about setting up in London.”
GSK’s announcement comes as a host of British and American firms vow to deploy capital in each other’s countries to coincide with US president Donald Trump’s state visit to the UK.
That has included tech giant Google making a £5bn investment pledge to build more data centres in Britain, as well as a £500m commitment from asset manager Blackrock.
GSK sources insisted the investment plan did not equate to a “no confidence” vote in the UK while CEO Emma Walmsley said the state visit “brings together two countries that have led the world in science and healthcare innovation.”
“We are proud to be part of both,” Walmsley said.
Reacting to the news, Prime Minister Keir Starmer defended the move as a “powerful example of how UK-US collaboration is driving real-world impact,” adding the investment would “change lives on both sides of the Atlantic, helping to accelerate the development of cutting-edge technologies.”
