GSK to cut jobs amid £1.9bn cost-cutting plan and bid for faster drug development

Pharmaceuticals company is investing £400m in UK life sciences and moving scientists to new Cambridge R&D site The British drugmaker GSK is to announce sweeping job cuts as part of a £1.9bn cost-cutting programme to pay for a £400m investment in UK life sciences over the next three years, including in a new research and development centre in Cambridge, as it looks to develop drugs more quickly under its new chief executive. The pharmaceuticals company announced on Tuesday it will move more than 1,000 of its scientists to its new site on the Cambridge biomedical campus. It will close its R&D site in Stevenage in Hertfordshire by 2029, while upgrading its R&D laboratories at nearby Ware and moving some employees there. Luke Miels, the GSK chief executive, said: “This investment will accelerate our R&D and help us deliver new, competitive products. It integrates GSK further into one of the world’s leading centres of knowledge and demonstrates the attractiveness of the UK’s life sciences ecosystem.” GSK’s new 300,000-sq ft (28,000 sq metre) Cambridge site, which is being developed by the warehouse builder Prologis, is on one of the largest biomedical campuses in Europe. Mo