GSK 2010 Q3 results

Some pretty interesting things in the Q3 results: Sales are down 8% in the US and 9% in Europe. This is accounted for by a descrease in Avandia and Valtrex sales. While Avandia is their best known drug, it seems to only account for about 2% of their overall sales, largely because so much of what they sell internationally is of the immunization type. Three of their newest oncology used medicines counted for 2 million pounds (about $3,135,000). This company has some fantastic cash cows!!

Operations Overseas

Glaxo Smith Kline is one of the most globally diversified companies on the globe! They have operations in 93 countries and have webpages tailored to each country. Their marketing and research are across each of these locations with different areas of focus with each country.

Vertical Integration and Outsourcing

One fine example of strategy we can see at Glaxo Smith Kline is their "Pool for Open Innvoation against neglected tropical diseases" which is a collaboration they started in 2009. Though they are only in the fine print on the Pool's website, they are in a great position to reap rewards from this group. Essentially they are allowing other researchers to use their research to help come up with new drug formulas, and are hoping that resulting medications that will be collaborative efforts will then be patented to the Pool. By taking in these other researchers through information sharing, they are outsourcing to an extent as well as vertically integrating!

Competitive Strategies

Fortunately for Glaxo Smith Kline, all drug companies very successfully use the broad differentiation strategy. By patenting their formulas, drug makers can prevent others from even having a similar medication for several years. By holding this exclusivity, GSK and other drug manufacturers can set their own pricing, and often, due to the very differentiated uses of these (often life-saving) drugs can set them as high as they want.

This strategy is made very apparent by drugs like Avandia, for which there is no similar drug or generic. (Which, in this case, may be fortunate, as this drug was rushed to production without thorough enough testing and is now being pulled from many locations.)

Strengths and Weaknesses of GSK

The primary strength of GSK has to be their marketing department! They are quick to start patient recovery as soon as bad news comes out and always send out press releases that don't try to hide the topics.
I think a major weakness is that they could have a more user-friendly feel to their website.

Today's stock

Also, we are holding at $41.50 after several days. The Avandia dilemma seems to have not had any short-term effects on stock price!

Intestinal Worms?

So yesterday Glaxo Smith Klein announced that they were going to help kids by researching worms. Yeah. WORMS.
Gross, I know, but pretty cool really. They are looking at improving access to albenzadole, which treats intestinal worms in children. Since worms are apparently a leading cause of absenteeism and poor child health, the extra 400 million doses they plan to make over the next 5 years will really help the WHO (World Health Organization.)
From a marketing perspective this is a great opportunity. It is hard to say anything negative about a company that is helping that many children!