Duncan Learmouth to lead new GSK unit

GlaxoSmithKline has created a new business group dedicated to improving access to medicines in the world’s least developed countries.

GSK’s Developing Countries and Market Access operating unit will be led by Duncan Learmouth and integrates the company’s pharmaceutical business in the least developed countries into one group.

Learmouth has been with GSK since 1991, when it was Glaxo Wellcome, and has served as senior vice president of global communications for the last four years. 

The aim for the new unit is to provide a dedicated focus on the strategic approaches needed to expand access to medicines for patients living in these countries.

Chief executive Andrew Witty said: “Access to medicines continues to become hardwired into the way we do our business as we seek new solutions to challenges in all the communities in which we operate. Creating an operating unit specifically for the least developed countries builds on our commitment to change the landscape of healthcare for the world’s poorest people.”

The United Nations includes 49 countries on its list of least developed countries, including Angola, Benin, Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Haiti.

Learmouth assumes leadership of the new group on 1 August and will report to Abbas Hussain, president, emerging markets/Asia Pacific at GSK.

The new unit will also include the market access function that supports access programmes and policies for the wider the Emerging Markets and Asia Pacific (EMAP) Region.