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The chief executive of one of the UK’s largest pharmaceutical firms has identified the United States as the most attractive destination for business investment. Dame Emma Walmsley, who leads GSK, a major player in vaccines and medicines, revealed plans to invest $30 billion (£23 billion) in the US by the year 2030. This announcement comes amid a broader industry trend; several prominent drug manufacturers have recently withdrawn UK-based projects amounting to billions of pounds. These decisions have been influenced by frustrations over NHS drug budget constraints and political pressures from the US administration to bring production back domestically.
Dame Emma, who is stepping down from GSK in January after an eight-year tenure, expressed optimism about a new arrangement that will see the NHS increase payments in exchange for zero tariffs on British pharmaceutical exports to America. Speaking from GSK’s London headquarters, she asserted that the company would not hesitate to pursue its US investment agenda, given that more than half of GSK’s revenue is generated there. She described the US as “still the leading market in the world in terms of the launches of new drugs and vaccines,” also highlighting China as a prime location for business development within the pharmaceutical sphere.
This enhanced focus on American markets coincides with similar choices by other drug companies. For example, Merck (known as MSD in Europe) recently abandoned a £1 billion expansion in the UK, while AstraZeneca paused a £200 million investment in a Cambridge research center, redirecting substantial funds to its US operations. Such moves reflect a broader reluctance in the pharmaceutical industry to invest heavily in the UK, despite government efforts to promote Britain as a global life sciences hub.
Despite these setbacks, Dame Emma considers the new tariff-free trade deal on UK pharmaceuticals sold to the US to be a positive step. The agreement requires the NHS to allocate more funds toward medicines but locks in zero import taxes on UK-made drugs entering the US market for three years. She sees this as a reversal of the longstanding decline in the share of NHS budgets spent on medicines, relative to health systems in other countries. According to Dame Emma, this shift could foster innovation like GSK’s new asthma treatment, which promises to reduce serious asthma-related hospital admissions by 70% and may soon gain NHS approval.
When discussing the state of the nation’s health, Dame Emma pointed to underlying social and demographic factors contributing to worsening outcomes, including disparities in life expectancy that can vary by 10 to 15 years depending on location within the UK. She cited British dietary habits and insufficient public education on nutrition as key issues, stating, “I think there’s no question that the food system is fundamentally something we need to look at harder.”
Dame Emma also contrasted healthcare experiences in the UK’s NHS with those in the US private system, drawing on her personal experiences giving birth in London, Paris, and New York. She noted significant differences in postnatal care, from the nature of advice provided to hospital stays and follow-up visits. Emphasizing the importance of balancing cost, accessibility, and outcomes, she acknowledged that the NHS “still has work to do” to achieve this equilibrium.
Looking ahead, Dame Emma expressed enthusiasm about the potential impact of artificial intelligence on the pharmaceutical industry. Highlighting the high failure rate of drug development—where “90% of the projects in our industry don’t work”—she believes that even a modest improvement in success rates would dramatically accelerate innovation. Ultimately, she underscored the universal significance of health, declaring it “one of the few things that every single person on the planet ends up caring about.
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