By Graeme Evans

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GSK today announced that chief executive Emma Walmsley is to step down from the board at the end of the year. She has been in charge of the drugs giant since April 2017.

Chief commercial officer Luke Miels, who joined GSK in 2017, will take on the £1.375 million a year role from January.

GSK chair Jonathan Symonds said: “On behalf of the board, I want to thank Emma and acknowledge her outstanding leadership in delivering a strategic transformation of GSK, including the successful demerger of Haleon.

“GSK today is necessarily very different to the company she was appointed to nine years ago and has a bright and ambitious future.

“The company is performing to a new, more competitive standard, with performance anchored in a stronger portfolio balanced across specialty medicines and vaccines.”

Walmsley joined GSK in 2010 from L’Oreal, having worked there for 17 years in a variety of roles in Paris, London, New York and Shanghai.

Before being appointed as GSK’s CEO, she led GSK consumer healthcare joint venture with Novartis following its creation in March 2015.

She said today: “2026 is a pivotal year for GSK to define its path for the decade ahead, and I believe the right moment for new leadership.

“As CEO, you hope to leave the company you love stronger than you found it and prepare for seamless succession. I’m proud to have done both – and to have created Haleon, a new world-leader in consumer health.

“Today, GSK is a biopharma innovator, with far stronger momentum and prospects than nine years ago.”

GSK shares start today’s session at 1486p, broadly unchanged on a year ago but up from 1264p seen in April.