Nick Goodway: Sir Andrew Witty has just the medicine for UK’s needs post-Brexit

Nick Goodway: We could do with more captains of industry telling us what great prospects their companies still have outside the EU

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Nick Goodway

2 August 2016

Full marks to Sir Andrew Witty. The oft-criticised chief executive of GlaxoSmithKline was one of the loudest corporate voices in the Remain campaign.

As long ago as January, Witty said Europe had been a big win for his company and the whole pharma industry: “Europe has gone from 27 fragmented, independent, not-talking-to-each-other regulatory authorities in the healthcare space to one. That’s a big deal.”

But since the vote that will create one single market and one single outlier with its own rules for drugs and drugmakers, he has unveiled a couple of significant deals.

Last week, it was the decision to invest £275 million in three of its UK plants. This week, it was a £540 million tie-up with Google owner Alphabet to create a bioelectronic medicines joint venture.

Both announcements shout the news that GlaxoSmithKline and Britain are open for business.

We could do with more captains of industry telling us what great prospects their companies still have outside the EU and even better bringing in overseas partners to boost their endeavours in this country.

Anyone heard from Sir Stuart Rose recently?

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Nick Goodway: Sir Andrew Witty has just the medicine for UK’s needs post-Brexit

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