GlaxoSmithKline to set out future strategy amid revenue concerns

The newly-merged GlaxoSmithKline is to outline its business strategy to investors at meetings in February. The company — the world's largest drugs concern in sales terms — is expected to announce profit forecasts and plans for product licensing.

The company's current product portfolio will keep earnings growth healthy for the next two years, but recent setbacks threaten to derail its smooth progress in later years. In November, Glaxo's Lotronex, an irritable bowel syndrome treatment, was withdrawn six months after its US launch following evidence of unexpected severe side-effects; while SmithKline abandoned trials of the heart drug lotrafiban and received a non-approval letter for the antibiotic Fabrin from the US Food and Drug Administration. To fill this gap, the company could opt to license drugs from other pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies.