Early next year, if all goes according to plan, Sir Andrew Witty will step down after nine years as CEO of GlaxoSmithKline, the world's sixth largest pharmaceutical company. He'll leave behind a company with an unmatched record for balancing scientific progress, social impact and the profit motive.
GSK has made a calculated bet on intellectual property leniency in poor nations, releasing drugs from patent protection and thus lowering their prices. That may depress revenue, but GSK says it doesn't lose money in any market where it operates. And over time the approach builds goodwill and a strong market presence around the globe. “GSK has existed for 300 years,” Witty tells Fortune. “We think about how we can be successful, not just in the next year or the next two years, but in the next 10, 15, 20, 30, 40 years.” The near term looks good: GSK's revenue grew 4% in the second quarter of 2016, as new product sales crossed the $1.5 billion threshold for the first time
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