novartis's 36.5% stake in their consumer healthcare joint venture for us$13 billion (£9.2 billion). gsk–pfizer joint venture in december 2018, gsk announced that it, along with pfizer, had reached an agreement to merge and combine their consumer healthcare divisions into a single entity. the combined entity would have sales of around £9.8 billion ($12.7 billion), with gsk maintaining a 68% controlling stake in the joint venture. pfizer would own the remaining 32% shareholding. the deal builds on an earlier 2018 deal where gsk bought out novartis' stake in the gsk-novartis consumer healthcare joint business. subsequent split gsk's former logo, used until 9 june 2022 the culmination of the consumer healthcare string of deals will result in gsk splitting into two separate companies, via a demerger and subsequent listing of the joint venture. this will create two publicly traded companies, one focusing on pharmaceuticals and research & development, the other on consumer healthcare. on 22 february 2022, gsk announced that the spin-off consumer healthcare company will be called haleon. in january 2022, the company announced that they had received three unsolicited offers from unilever to acquire the consumer healthcare business unit, with the final proposal valuing the business unit at £50 billion (£41.7 billion in cash, plus £8.3 billion in unilever shares). subsequently, gsk declined all outside offers/attempts to acquire its consumer healthcare business and moved forward with its plan to complete the demerger from the main biopharmaceutical business. recent developments in april 2022, the business announced it would acquire sierra oncology inc for $1.9 billion ($55 per share). in may 2022, gsk announced it would acquire affinivax and its phase ii 24-valent pneumococcal vaccine candidate for up to $3.3 billion, strengthening its vaccine business. on 16 may 2022, the company changed its name from glaxosmithkline to gsk. in april 2023, gsk announced it would acquire bellus health inc. for $2.0 billion. acquisition-history diagram glaxosmithkline structure gsk glaxosmithkline smithkline beecham plc (renamed 1989) smithkline beckman (renamed 1982) smithkline-rit (renamed 1968) smith, kline & french (reorganized 1929 into smith kline and french laboratories) french, richards and company (acquired 1891) smith, kline and company recherche et industrie thérapeutiques (acquired 1968) beckman instruments, inc. (merged 1982, sold 1989) specialized instruments corp. (acquired 1954) offner electronics (acquired 1961) international clinical laboratories (acquired 1989) reckitt & colman (acquired 1999) beecham group plc (merged 1989) beecham group ltd s. e. massengill company (acquired 1971) c.l. bencard (acquired 1953) county chemicals norcliff thayer (acquired 1986) glaxo wellcome glaxo (merged 1995) joseph nathan & co allen & hanburys (founded 1715, acquired 1958) meyer laboratories (merged 1978) affymax (acquired 1995) wellcome foundation (renamed 1924, merged 1995) burroughs wellcome & company (founded 1880) mcdougall & robertson inc (acquired 1959) block drug (acquired 2001) cns inc. (acquired 2006) stiefel laboratories (acquired 2009) laboratorios phoenix (acquired 2010) maxinutrition (acquired 2010) cellzome (acquired 2011) human genome sciences (acquired 2013) glycovaxyn (acquired 2015) tesaro (acquired 2019) sitari pharmaceuticals (acquired 2019) sierra oncology (acquired 2022) affinivax (acquired 2022) bellus health inc.(acquired 2023) research areas and products pharmaceuticals gsk manufactures products for major disease areas such as asthma, cancer, infections, diabetes, and mental health. medicines historically discovered or developed at gsk and its legacy companies and now sold as generics include amoxicillin and amoxicillin-clavulanate, ticarcillin-clavulanate, mupirocin, and ceftazidime for bacterial infections, zidovudine for hiv infection, valacyclovir for herpes virus infections, albendazole for parasitic infections, sumatriptan for migraine, lamotrigine for epilepsy, bupropion and paroxetine for major depressive disorder, cimetidine and ranitidine for gastroesophageal reflux disorder, mercaptopurine and thioguanine for the treatment of leukemia, allopurinol for gout, pyrimethamine for malaria, and the antibacterial trimethoprim. among these, albendazole, amoxicillin, amoxicillin-clavulanate, allopurinol, mercaptopurine, mupirocin, pyrimethamine, ranitidine, thioguanine, trimethoprim, and zidovudine are on the world health organization's list of essential medicines. malaria vaccine in 2014, gsk applied for regulatory approval for the first malaria vaccine. malaria is responsible for over 650,000 deaths annually, mainly in africa. known as rts,s, the vaccine was developed as a joint project with the path vaccines initiative and the bill and melinda gates foundation. the company has committed to making the vaccine available in developing countries for five percent above the cost of production. as of 2013, rts,s, which uses gsk's proprietary as01 adjuvant, was being examined in a phase 3 trial in eight african countries. path reported that "n the 12-month period following vaccination, rts,s conferred approximately 50% protection from clinical plasmodium falciparum disease in children aged 5-17 months, and approximately 30% protection in children aged 6-12 weeks when administered in conjunction with expanded program for immunization (epi) vaccines." in 2014, glaxo said it had spent more than us$350 million and expected to spend an additional us$260 million before seeking regulatory approval. consumer healthcare gsk's consumer healthcare division, which earned £5.2 billion in 2013, sells oral healthcare, including aquafresh, macleans and sensodyne toothpastes. gsk also previously owned the lucozade and ribena brands of soft drinks, but they were sold in 2013, to suntory for £1.35bn. other products include abreva to treat cold sores; night nurse, a cold remedy; breathe right nasal strips; and nicoderm and nicorette nicotine replacements. in march 2014, it recalled alli, an over-the-counter weight-loss drug, in the united states and puerto rico because of possible tampering, following customer complaints. facilities as of 2013, gsk had offices in over 115 countries and employed over 99,000 people, 12,500 in r&d. the company's single largest market is the united states. its us headquarters are in the navy yard, philadelphia, and research triangle park, north carolina; its consumer-products division is in moon township, pennsylvania. covid-19 vaccine main article: sanofi–gsk covid-19 vaccine in july 2020, the uk government signed up for 60 million doses of a covid-19 vaccine developed by gsk and sanofi. it uses a recombinant protein-based technology from sanofi and gsk's pandemic technology. the companies claimed to be able to produce one billion doses, subject to successful trials and regulatory approval, during the first half of 2021. the company also agreed to a $2.1 billion deal with the united states to produce 100 million doses of the vaccine. venture arms sr one was established in 1985, by smithkline beecham to invest in new biotechnology companies and continued operating after gsk was formed; by 2003, gsk had formed another subsidiary, gsk ventures, to out-license or start new companies around drug candidates that it did not intend to develop further. as of 2003, sr one tended to invest only if the company aligned with gsk's business. in september 2019, gsk announced it would acquire sitari pharmaceuticals and its transglutaminase 2 small molecule program for the treatment of celiac disease. recognition, philanthropy and social responsibility scientific recognition four glaxosmithkline scientists have been recognized by the nobel committee for their contributions to basic medical science and/or therapeutics development. henry dale, a former student of paul ehrlich, received the 1936 nobel prize in medicine for his work on the chemical transmission of neural impulses. dale served as a pharmacologist and then as director of the wellcome physiological research laboratories from 1904 to 1914, and later served as trustee and chairman of the board of the wellcome trust. john vane of wellcome research laboratories shared the 1982 nobel prize for medicine for his work on prostaglandin biology and the discovery of prostacyclin. vane served as group research and development director for the wellcome foundation from 1973 to 1985. gertrude b. elion and george hitchings, both of the wellcome research laboratories, shared the 1988 nobel prize in medicine with sir james w. black, formerly of smith kline & french and the wellcome foundation, ""for their discoveries of important principles for drug treatment"." elion and hitchings were responsible for the discovery of a plethora of important drugs, including mercaptopurine and thioguanine for the treatment of leukemia, the immunosuppressant azothioprine, allopurinol for gout, pyrimethamine for malaria, the antibacterial trimethoprim, acyclovir for herpes virus infection, and nelarabine for cancer treatment. philanthropy and social responsibility since 2010, glaxosmithkline has several times ranked first among pharmaceutical companies on the global access to medicines index, which is funded by the bill and melinda gates foundation. in 2014, the human rights campaign, an lgbt-rights advocacy group gave gsk a score of 100 percent in its corporate equality index. gsk has been active, with the world health organization (who), in the global alliance to eliminate lymphatic filariasis (gaelf). around 120 million people globally are believed to be infected with lymphatic filariasis. in 2012, the company endorsed the london declaration on neglected tropical diseases; it agreed to donate 400 million albendazole tablets to the who each year to fight soil-transmitted helminthiasis and to provide 600 million albendazole tablets every year for lymphatic filariasis until the disease is eradicated. as of 2014, over 5 billion treatments had been delivered, and 18 of 73 countries in which the disease is considered endemic had progressed to the surveillance stage. in 2009, the company said it would cut drug prices by 25 percent in 50 of the poorest nations, release intellectual property rights for substances and processes relevant to neglected disease into a patent pool to encourage new drug development, and invest 20 percent of profits from the least-developed countries in medical infrastructure for those countries. médecins sans frontières welcomed the decision, but criticized gsk for failing to include hiv patents in its patent pool and for not including middle-income countries in the initiative. in 2013, gsk licensed its hiv portfolio to the medicines patent pool for use in children, and agreed to negotiate a license for dolutegravir, an integrase inhibitor then in clinical development. in 2014, this license was extended to include dolutegravir and adults with hiv. the licenses include countries in which 93 percent of adults and 99 percent of children with hiv live. also in 2013 gsk joined alltrials, a british campaign to ensure that all clinical trials are registered and the results reported. the company said it would make its past clinical-trial reports available and future ones within a year of the studies' end. gsk has largely had an access strategy, providing medicines at a subsidized price to lower and middle income markets including africa under the former ceo andrew witty. in 2017, its new ceo, emma walmsley, shifted away from this with gsk exiting all sub-saharan african markets and there being no plans to provide its newer expensive oncology and genetics pipeline to this population. controversies 1973 antitrust case over griseofulvin in the 1960s, glaxo group ltd. (glaxo) and imperial chemical industries (ici) each owned patents covering various aspects of the antifungal drug griseofulvin.: 54, nn. 1–2 they created a patent pool by cross-licensing their patents, subject to express licensing restrictions that the chemical from which the "finished" form of the drug (tablets and capsules) was made must not be resold in bulk form, and they licensed other drug companies to sell the drug in finished form and subject to similar restrictions.: 54–55 the effect and intent of the bulk-sale restriction was to keep the drug chemical out of the hands of small companies that might act as price-cutters, and the effect was to maintain stable, uniform prices. the united states brought an antitrust suit against the two companies—united states v. glaxo group ltd.—charging them with violation of the sherman act and also seeking to have the patents declared invalid.: 55 the trial court found that the defendants had engaged in several unlawful conspiracies, but dismissed the part of the suit seeking invalidation of patents and refused to grant as relief mandatory sales of the bulk drug chemical and compulsory licensing of the patents.: 56 the government appealed to the supreme court, which reversed, in united states v. glaxo group ltd., 410 u.s. 52 (1973). 2000s ribena old ribena bottle, year unknown, made by beecham products, brentford, middlesex; the label states: "widely used in hospitals and clinics." there were concerns in the 2000s about the sugar and vitamin content of ribena, a blackcurrant-based syrup and soft drink owned by gsk until 2013. produced in england by h.w. carter & co from the 1930s, the company's unbranded syrup was distributed to children as a source of vitamin c during world war ii, which gave the drink a reputation as good for health. beecham bought h. w. carter in 1955. in 2001, the british advertising standards authority (asa) required gsk to withdraw its claim that ribena toothkind, a lower-sugar variety, did