GSK flash the cash and go hunting for graduates
15 Apr 2011 by Evoluted New Media
As Pfizer and AstraZenica prepare to close their research and development sites and universities debate their tuition fees, GSK swoop in offering partnerships to superstar academics and to pay the fees of graduates.
As Pfizer and AstraZenica prepare to close their research and development sites and universities debate their tuition fees, GSK swoop in offering partnerships to superstar academics and to pay the fees of graduates.
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| GSK offer to pay tuition fees of students starting university in 2012 |
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) will pay the £27,000 tuition fees for between 50 and 100 graduates joining their training scheme from 2015 to ensure the pharmaceutical giant recruits the best graduates.
The drug company are also seeking alliances with ‘academic superstars’ as part of a new drug development strategy that will see them fund the scientist’s facilities and research.
The GSK graduate training programme already offers a highly competitive compensation package to successful applicants but the pharmaceutical company are to reimburse 100% of the uncapped tuition fees – up to £27,000 – for undergraduates recruited in the UK who start university next year.
“The student will go to university and complete their course and then apply for a job at GSK in the normal way,” said Claire Brough, a GSK media representative told Laboratory News. “They’ll take the same application route as before and will be recruited on the basis of their individual qualities.”
The payment will be made upon the graduate starting employment, and is conditional – the employee must stay with the company for a minimum of two years. GSK are the first to announce such a scheme, which will cost them about £3m a year.
Announcing the scheme on Sky News, CEO Andrew Witty said “The biggest reason we are doing this is that we want to get the absolute best possible graduates we can to work for GSK. This is a great way for us to ensure we get that next brilliant scientist.”
The programme is not only aimed at scientists, chemists and pharmacists but lawyers, economists and the very best graduates who could help the company.
Government changes to tuition fees – some universities will be charging an uncapped £9,000 per year – plus general living costs will leave students with a debt equivalent to a mortgage.
According to GSK, the scheme is “part of the company’s ongoing efforts to attract, recruit and retain the best talent and reflect the changing environment in the UK for students.”
GSK are also searching for 10 scientific superstars as part of a new scheme – Discovery Partnerships in Academia – to help them develop drugs more cost effectively. They hope to forge long term partnerships which will see academics working more closely with the company while retaining their independence.
The first superstar has been unveiled as Professor Mark Peyps, head of medicine at the Royal Free and University College Medicine School. Peyps is also head of UCL-spin out Pentraxin Therapeutics, with whom GKS entered into a collaboration to develop the drug for a rare form of amyloidosis in January.
“It’s a wonderful idea and we are delighted to be working with GSK to develop new medicines for patients,” said Peyps.
“We all agree that big pharma is useless at discovering new drugs and has to get its ideas from somewhere else,” he said. “GSK can cherry-pick projects and we work together in a highly interactive, collaborative way. We invented the molecule, and they use their medicinal chemistry expertise to improve it. This is absolutely thrilling.”
Under the scheme, scientists are being asked to approach GSK with their ideas which will be considered and if successful, GSK will fund scientists’ facilities and research, and provide incentives to the lead researchers. They will have any exclusive rights to candidates for development.
