CEO, GSK
GSK CEO on acquisition of biotech firm IDRx
Emma Walmsley, GSK CEO, joins 'Money Movers' to discuss the company's deal to acquire IDRx, the impact of Robert F.
About Emma Walmsley
In a December 2025 interview on *The CEO Signal*, Emma Walmsley reflected on her tenure as CEO of GSK as she prepared to hand over the role to her successor, Luke Miels. She stated that "no one should take on these jobs without taking on the accountability," and described the experience of being targeted by an activist investor as difficult not to take personally. Walmsley said she focused on absorbing pressure herself to avoid distracting the organization, and that she anchored in her own belief in the company's strategy and purpose. Walmsley also commented on the broader healthcare landscape, saying that "the way to reduce the cost of health care is to keep people out of hospital and keep them well for longer," and argued for more diagnostics, better use of data, and sustainable, predictable pricing that still incentivizes innovation.
Transcript (5 segments)
✨ AI-enhanced transcript with speaker attribution
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Angelica0:01
Biotech a player. Let's get more with our evangelical peoples, Angelica.
Good morning, Carl. Thank you so much for being here, Emma. You are acquiring a...
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Emma Walmsley0:27
Thank you very much, Angelica. It's great to be here. It's wonderful to kick off the year with this good news at the time of real momentum for GSK. In 2024, at the beginning of the year, we were able to upgrade our medium and long-term outlooks, and a big part of that is the real momentum in our specialty business. We have made a conscious decision to invest back in oncology. That business has already doubled up until the reported results last year, and this year we are really looking forward to hopefully the approval of multiple myeloma, a really important new drug with various significant results in terms of overall survival for cancer sufferers with multiple myeloma. And this announcement today is another addition to our oncology portfolio, adding to the assets that we have in GI cancers. We hope it's going to be able to be a best-in-class solution for those living with GI stromal tumor cancer. The data is showing that 90% of sufferers... this potentially could have broader coverage to address that and be more tolerable. So a great thing to add to that portfolio at a time when GSK has come back and cancer is very firmly on track. And obviously, we all know that a cancer diagnosis is a difficult one for the one in five of us who has to face that personally. I'm sure that everybody here on your set knows or loves someone who is facing that. There's still so much unmet need here in this disease, and we really are determined that GSK will bring new, needed solutions, not least in this country, which remains the best country in the world to bring new innovation.
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Angelica2:28
A big piece of your portfolio is vaccines, and they have been in the news a lot. He shared a stat that there are again five infants around the world actually get the vaccine. We are hearing a lot about this in the U.S. with... How do you feel about that and what his presence might mean for vaccines and your business?
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Emma Walmsley2:41
Well, the first thing to say is our purpose at GSK is defined as getting ahead of disease together, and that is also what making America healthy is, keeping America healthy, and it's great to hear the new administration talking about prevention of disease. Part of that can be vaccines, and let's face it, there is no greater intervention in public health than vaccination. I think the CDC said in the last 30 years, 500 million childhood illnesses have been prevented through vaccination. More than 1 million childhood deaths have been prevented, and that is something that parents now don't have to, you know, both moms... we will have to worry so much about our children and measles or polio or diseases that have long since been dealt with. We at GSK really welcome a transparent dialogue about vaccination. The efficacy is the efficacy. If people have questions, let's answer them. Getting ahead of disease together is about collaboration. We look forward to discussing that, but remember, the biggest business is also in specialty medicine. That's where we are seeing double-digit growth in HIV and oncology.