GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) in July made its consumer health products division a separate entity as it transforms into a world-leading biopharmaceutical company. By uniting science, technology and talent, the company is aiming to prevent and treat diseases with innovative vaccines, specialty pharmaceuticals and general medicines.
GSK’s headquarters annually invests NT$192 billion (US$6.07 billion) in research and development, focusing on immune science and advanced technologies in human genetics. GSK’s drug and vaccine development focuses on infectious diseases, HIV, oncology and immunology.
Investing in clinical trial research each year, GSK also brings drug development to Taiwan. It cooperates with 17 medical institutes and research centers in Taiwan to help domestic medical research keep pace with international trends and enhance Taiwan’s status as a center for clinical research in the Asia-Pacific region.
Photo courtesy of GSK Taiwan
GSK has launched a revamped brand identity system, which was modified from its former orange logo consisting of lowercase “gsk” and a beating heart. The new logo adopts gradient orange, capitalized “GSK,” and digital and technological lines. Its design brings out a striking, eye-catching image, while conveying GSK’s goals and ideas for the future.
The arrow in the new logo symbolizes GSK’s combination of digital, social and environmental concerns as a “signal to move ahead together” in the biopharmaceutical industry. The curve in the logo symbolizes the ability of the immune system to adapt to and evolve along with the environment.
GSK’s Taiwan branch was established 43 years ago, and has since protected the health of Taiwanese.
“After transforming the organization, our new ambitions and new purpose is to expand our impact here in Taiwan by protecting and treating more patients, to make GSK a place where people can thrive, where they can succeed, grow and be happy at work, all underpinned by doing everything with integrity and care,” GSK Taiwan vice president and general manager Mick Stanley said.
The newly transformed GSK is focusing on protecting the health of Taiwanese with pharmaceuticals and vaccines, advocating and practicing the values of diversity and inclusion, and caring for employees and practicing sustainable development, all of which form the company’s business philosophy.
Being “ambitious for patients” is part of the corporate culture, which GSK attaches great importance to.
“In addition to ‘ambitious for patients,’ GSK’s culture also emphasizes ‘accountable for impact.’ We hope to expand our impacts on Taiwanese people,” Stanley said. “We hope we can move ahead together to defeat disease with medicines and vaccines.”
GSK provides as many as 50 kinds of prescription medicines and more than 15 kinds of vaccines, for children and adults, and endeavors to do its utmost for the health of Taiwanese.
Every day, 2 million doses of vaccines produced by GSK are administered around the world. In the past few years, GSK has advocated for adult vaccination. For example, GSK Taiwan has recently launched a new vaccine against the herpes zoster virus to protect against shingles.
To help Taiwanese become aware of the necessity of adult vaccination, GSK is working with entities in Taiwan to create and promote comprehensive information and an environment for adult vaccination.
GSK provides vaccines for infectious diseases that could occur at every stage of life. It helps provide proper immune protection against meningitis, quadrivalent influenza, polio, measles and other diseases. In Taiwan, an average of 40 percent of children receive vaccines provided by GSK.
GSK is also concerned about the healthcare challenges faced by Taiwan’s rapidly aging population. Accordingly, GSK has been discussing important policy developments with the government through the American Chamber of Commerce in Taiwan, the European Chamber of Commerce Taiwan and the International Research-Based Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association, with the aim of helping Taiwan lay a solid foundation for its medical environment in the decades to come.
Additionally, since the invention of the first-ever medicine for the treatment of HIV, GSK has continuously worked to improve the health and quality of life of people living with HIV, and has cooperated with government entities and patient groups.
In addition to vaccines, GSK also leads the industry in the treatment and prevention of diseases such as respiratory illnesses. For people with asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and other respiratory diseases who need drugs for treatment, GSK helps them with a variety of inhaled medicines.
The world’s first inhaler was developed by GSK.
The company helps more than 2 million people with respiratory diseases every year in Taiwan, and allows them to breathe freely with improved quality of life.
Shares of contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) came under pressure yesterday after a report that Apple Inc is looking to shift some orders from the Taiwanese company to Intel Corp. TSMC shares fell NT$55, or 2.4 percent, to close at NT$2,235 on the local main board, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed. Despite the losses, TSMC is expected to continue to benefit from sound fundamentals, as it maintains a lead over its peers in high-end process development, analysts said. “The selling was a knee-jerk reaction to an Intel-Apple report over the weekend,” Mega International Investment Services Corp (兆豐國際投顧) analyst Alex Huang
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to remain Apple Inc’s primary chip manufacturing partner despite reports that Apple could shift some orders to Intel Corp, industry experts said yesterday. The comments came after The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Apple and Intel had reached a preliminary agreement following more than a year of negotiations for Intel to manufacture some chips for Apple devices. Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (台灣經濟研究院) economist Arisa Liu (劉佩真) said TSMC’s advanced packaging technologies, including integrated fan-out and chip-on-wafer-on-substrate, remain critical to the performance of Apple’s A-series and M-series chips. She said Intel and Samsung
POWER BUILDUP: Powered by Nvidia’s B200 Blackwell chips, the data center would support MediaTek’s computing power demand and business growth, the company said Smartphone chip designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科) yesterday launched a new artificial intelligence (AI) data center with a maximum capacity of 45 megawatts to meet its rising demand for computing power required to develop new advanced chips for AI applications. The company has completed the first-phase computing power buildup at the data center in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Township (銅鑼), providing 15 megawatts of capacity to support its research and development (R&D) capabilities, despite an industrywide shortage of key components, MediaTek said. Supply constraints have plagued a wide range of key components, including memory chips, solid-state drives, power supply units and central
TRANSITION: With the closure, the company would reorganize its Taiwanese unit to a sales and service-focused model, Bridgestone said Bridgestone Corp yesterday announced it would cease manufacturing operations at its tire plant in Hsinchu County’s Hukou Township (湖口), affecting more than 500 workers. Bridgestone Taiwan Co (台灣普利司通) said in a statement that the decision was based on the Tokyo-based tire maker’s adjustments to its global operational strategy and long-term market development considerations. The Taiwanese unit would be reorganized as part of the closure, effective yesterday, and all related production activities would be concluded, the statement said. Under the plan, Bridgestone would continue to deepen its presence in the Taiwanese market, while transitioning to a sales and service-focused business model, it added. The Hsinchu