GSK appoints Patrick Vallance

Patrick Vallance has been appointed as senior vice president, medicines discovery and development at GlaxoSmithKline, and as a member of the company’s corporate executive team, with effect from 1 July.

He joined the company in 2006 as head of drug discovery and has re-focused GSK’s discovery efforts on therapy areas that are underpinned by the most promising and mature science.

Patrick has also spent the past three years re-personalising GSK’s drug discovery operations, setting up small, empowered teams – called Discovery Performance Units - to improve pipeline productivity.

Chief executive Andrew Witty said: “Patrick has a deep level of scientific and medical acumen, which coupled with his proven management skills, mean he is well placed to bring further R&D perspective to GSK’s leadership team.

“This appointment aligns with the company’s drive to increase R&D productivity and deliver more products of value. I look forward to working with Patrick in his new role and welcome him to the executive team.”

Prior to joining GSK Patrick was a clinical academic and led the Division of Medicine at UCL.

He has over 20 years of experience of clinical medicine and has an international reputation as a vascular biologist and clinician scientist. His research has been translational, spanning structural and molecular studies, in vitro and in vivo experimental pharmacology and clinical studies including the use of large scale patient databases.

He was elected to the Academy of Medical Sciences in 1999, and subsequently became its Registrar before leaving to join GSK.