Will GSK show us what ‘purpose before profit’ really means?

Keep your eye on GlaxoSmithKline. The UK-based multinational drug-maker represents the future, both as a mass-producer of the vaccines that we pray will finally defeat Covid-19 and as a beacon of the way shareholder capitalism will re-position itself in the post-pandemic era.

GSK last week announced a collaboration with its French rival Sanofi to create a Covid-19 vaccine that it aims to manufacture at the rate of ‘hundreds of millions of doses annually’ by the end of next year. That’s 20 months before we might begin to feel safe again but still ‘a significantly faster timeline than for normal vaccine development’. And science apart, what was eye-catching in the statement by GSK chief executive Emma Walmsley is that she does not ‘expect to profit from our portfolio of collaborations… during this pandemic’. Any short-term profit generated will be re-invested in virus research and ‘long-term pandemic preparedness’, while making vaccines available to the world’s poorest countries will also be ‘a key part of our efforts, including donations’.