GSK said it will shed up to 350 R&D roles in the US and UK as it retools its research organisation, a move that comes despite rising spending on drug development.
A company spokesperson confirmed to FirstWord Monday that so far less than 50 jobs are being eliminated in the UK and less than 70 in the US, with final numbers — no more than 350 across both regions — subject to the completion of an internal reorganisation. The cuts represent “a very small number” of GSK’s roughly 12,000-person global R&D workforce, the spokesperson said.
The layoffs follow some workforce actions last year, when GSK said it was trimming a “very limited number” of roles from its global R&D team as it redirected resources toward higher-priority programmes. GSK also later disclosed plans to cut some 150 jobs in Massachusetts tied to manufacturing changes in Cambridge. Those cuts, however, were not part of the R&D reductions and instead reflected a shift of certain production activities to Pennsylvania.
Despite the layoffs, GSK said it is actually spending more on research. Its R&D investment has risen by almost 90% since 2016, reaching £6.4 billion ($8.7 billion) in 2024. “We expect it to increase further as we focus on delivering our pipeline of new medicines with multi-blockbuster potential before 2031,” the spokesperson said.
n the US, GSK announced plans last September to pour $30 billion over five years into R&D and supply-chain infrastructure. That investment — one of several multi-billion–dollar US projects announced by its big pharma peers amid pressure from the Trump administration to ramp up US production — includes new and upgraded manufacturing facilities and advanced digital systems, and is expected to create hundreds of jobs.
Meanwhile, in the UK, where GSK spent more than £1.5 billion ($2 billion) on R&D last year, it expects to be a “net creator of R&D jobs…over the next couple of years,” the spokesperson said.
The changes come early in the tenure of new chief executive Luke Miels, who took over from Emma Walmsley at the start of 2026 and is preparing to present his first full set of financial results as CEO on Wednesday. Miels has already signaled a willingness to pursue M&A opportunities, exemplified by GSK’s $2.2-billion agreement last month to acquire RAPT Therapeutics, through which it gained a long-acting anti-IgE mAb in development for food allergy prophylaxis and chronic spontaneous urticaria.