Andrew Witty

Early life

Witty attended Malbank School (originally the "Nantwich and Acton Grammar School") in Nantwich, and then gained a bachelor's degree in economics from the University of Nottingham.

Career

Witty joined Glaxo UK in 1985 as a management trainee. He held various positions in the UK, including Director of Pharmacy & Distribution in Glaxo Pharmaceuticals UK, Director of Business Development of Biocompatibles Limited and International Product Manager of Glaxo Holdings PLC. He served as Managing Director of Glaxo South Africa and Area Director of South and East Africa.

He served as a vice president and general manager of marketing of Glaxo Wellcome Inc., a subsidiary of GlaxoSmithKline with responsibility for strategy development, marketing execution and new product positioning. He served as an economic adviser to the Governor of Guangzhou, China from 2000-02.

He was appointed president, Pharmaceuticals Europe of GlaxoSmithKline plc in January 2003 and succeeded Jean-Pierre Garnier as CEO following his retirement in May 2008. He is paid an annual salary of GB£948,000 and receives bonuses and other compensation amounting to GB£2,180,000 for this role.

In February 2009 he pledged to make a major change in the way GSK pharmaceuticals are priced, in an attempt to make vital drugs more affordable in countries with the lowest incomes. At the same time he announced that GSK would place certain patents in a pool so that they were freely available for others in the search for new drugs.

On 2 July 2012, GSK pleaded guilty to criminal charges and agreed to a $3 billion settlement of the largest health-care fraud case in the U.S. and the largest payment by a drug company. The settlement is related to the company's illegal promotion of prescription drugs, its failure to report safety data, bribing doctors, and promoting medicines for uses for which they were not licensed. The drugs involved were Paxil, Wellbutrin, Advair, Lamictal, and Zofran for off-label, non-covered uses. Those and the drugs Imitrex, Lotronex, Flovent, and Valtrex were involved in the kickback scheme.

In October 2012 it was announced that he had been appointed the Chancellor of the University of Nottingham with effect from 1 January 2013, having maintained strong ties with the university since graduation.

In July 2013, the People's Republic of China announced that they were investigating allegations of fraud perpetrated by GSK going back to 2007 and involving thousands of millions of renminbi. Four GSK executives have already been arrested in China. It is alleged that the money was used, inter alia, to bribe around 25 travel agencies that organize conferences for doctors, in order to encourage the agencies to host GSK events. Witty later claimed that he knew nothing about the China fraud and tried to pass the blame onto subordinates.

In November 2015 Witty's leadership of GSK was criticised by Neil Woodford, who said that "he’s not doing a very good job". Woodford called for GSK to be split into four companies. In March 2016 Witty announced that he was to stand down as chief executive.

Public bodies

Witty serves as a director of Singapore Economic Development Board, and on the Imperial College Commercialisation Advisory Board. He is a member of the INSEAD UK Council, Health Innovation Council in the UK and a director of the Office for Strategic Coordination of Health Research. He is also a member of the Economic Development Board audit committee as well as a board member of the Singapore Land Authority Board.

Knighthood

Witty was knighted in the 2012 New Year Honours for services to the economy and the UK pharmaceutical industry.

Personal life

Witty is a keen marathon runner, and ran the London Marathon in 2008. He lives in Buckinghamshire with his wife, Caroline, and two children.