GlaxoSmithKline says it will not start any new clinical trials in Russia
GlaxoSmithKline has joined other drugmakers in halting new clinical trials in Russia while still providing essential medicines to the country. Like others in the sector, it will push on with existing trials.
It said it would not start any new clinical trials and would not enrol new patients into existing trials in Russia, echoing steps taken by its British rival AstraZeneca and the US firms Pfizer and Eli Lilly. GSK has already stopped advertising its products in the country and will donate any profits made there to humanitarian relief efforts.
GSK is trialling medicines from various therapy areas across its portfolio in Russia, because the country’s regulatory authorities require local clinical data to be included in the submissions of drugs for approval.
It employs 1,100 people in Russia and 400 in Ukraine, where it has paused trials and all other operations. Russia and Ukraine together account for 1% of its £34bn annual sales. GSK does not have any manufacturing sites in Russia or Ukraine.
AstraZeneca, Britain’s biggest pharmaceutical firm, is still conducting clinical trials of new medicines in Russia and Ukraine, despite Russia’s invasion of Ukraine three weeks ago.
They are thought to include a trial of the combined use of its Covid-19 vaccine with the Russian Sputnik Lite jab, involving 100 volunteers in Russia and 100 volunteers in Azerbaijan. AstraZeneca, in partnership with Russia’s sovereign wealth fund and the Russian pharmaceutical firm R-Pharm, announced interim results of intermediate clinical trials to evaluate the safety of the combination in mid-February.
Sir Mene Pangalos, AstraZeneca’s executive vice-president of biopharmaceuticals research & development, told the Guardian that it was important to push
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