“MADRID -- GSK expects to nearly double the number of cancer medicines it is testing in clinical trials next year, according to one of its top scientists, highlighting how the company's dealmaking spree is filling its drug pipeline.
Hesham Abdullah, head of oncology research and development at the U.K. drugmaker, said in an interview that the company is firing on all cylinders to speed up its return to the field of cancer medicine.
"Right now we have five approved [cancer] medicines, I think probably in a few weeks' time there'll be six," Abdullah said. "We have a clinical-stage portfolio of about 15 assets that's probably going to, I would say, close to double in 2027."
GSK has bet big on cancer drugs in the first months of its new chief executive, Luke Miels. But its oncology comeback began under his predecessor, Emma Walmsley.
GSK made a series of acquisitions first, and later tapped into China's burgeoning biotech scene to add new cancer therapies to its pipeline, including a licensing deal with Hengrui Pharma valued at up to $12.5 billion.
With Miels at the helm, GSK this year bought Nuvalent -- a U.S. developer of lung-cancer medicines -- for $10.6 billion and licensed an experimental myeloma drug from China's Chimagen Biosciences for up to $750 million. Nuvalent was GSK's biggest stand-alone acquisition yet, and the largest deal the company was involved in since the $20 billion-plus asset swap with Switzerland's Novartis that saw the U.K. drugmaker exit the oncology market more than a decade ago.
The result of the dealmaking spree is an oncology portfolio that spans blood, lung, gynecologic, gastrointestinal and prostate cancers.
It houses different drug modalities such as targeted medicines called antibody-drug conjugates, immunotherapies that harness the immune system to fight tumors, and a new generation of small-molecule medicines.
"We're seeing that there's a continued rise in the incidence of cancer across multiple different patient segments," GSK's Abdullah said. "One of the biggest pushes for us in thinking about getting back into oncology was addressing this unmet need."
While GSK has made oncology a priority area, its push isn't expected to deliver material sales until the end of the decade, analysts at RBC Capital Markets wrote in a recent note to clients. In the meantime, its HIV franchise is set to start facing generic competition, they added.
Abdullah, who joined GSK from AstraZeneca seven years ago, has helped refocus its oncology strategy as head of research-and-development for the area since 2023.
He said recruiting people with specialized experience from the big pharma and big biotech sectors was key.
Fostering greater collaboration among its research-and-development, medical-affairs and commercial teams also contributed to the company's efforts to rebuild an oncology franchise, he added.
Miels has previously said the company needed "scientific courage" to accelerate its pipeline. Abdullah cited GSK's decision to move some drug candidates straight from early-stage to late-stage studies, and to run several pivotal trials for the same medicine simultaneously as practical applications of that pledge.
Among the medicines that GSK is fast-tracking to late-stage development are mo-rez and ris-rez, two antibody-drug conjugates it licensed from China's Hansoh Pharmaceuticals in 2023. GSK has started five late-stage trials for mo-rez and two for ris-rez across several types of cancer, with plans to launch three more ris-rez trials in the coming months. The company could have 19 to 20 late-stage oncology studies under way next year, Abdullah said.
At the annual congress of the European Society for Medical Oncology in Madrid, GSK presented the first global data for ris-rez in lung cancer. Abdullah said these gave the company confidence in the replicability of the results of the studies its partner conducted in China. GSK stock rose 0.4% Tuesday in London.” [1]
1. GSK Aims for More Cancer Drugs. Calatayud, Adria. Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 28 Oct 2026: B2.
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