The global pharmaceutical industry is undergoing a seismic shift, with investment strategies, government policies, and scientific breakthroughs all converging to reshape the landscape. On December 11, 2025, Dame Emma Walmsley, the outgoing chief executive of GSK, one of Britain’s largest pharmaceutical firms, delivered a candid assessment of the sector’s future. Speaking from GSK’s headquarters in central London, she declared, “The US is still the leading market in the world in terms of the launches of new drugs and vaccines.” Her words resonated across the industry, especially as GSK announced plans to invest a staggering $30 billion (£23 billion) in the United States by 2030.
This announcement comes against a backdrop of major pharmaceutical companies rethinking their UK strategies. According to the BBC, GSK’s decision follows notable exits and pauses from other giants: Merck (known as MSD in Europe) scrapped a planned £1 billion UK expansion, and AstraZeneca paused a £200 million investment in Cambridge, choosing instead to funnel tens of billions into US operations. The reasons for this exodus? Years of frustration with NHS drug budgets and mounting pressure from US policymakers—most notably former President Donald Trump—to prioritize American manufacturing.
Despite these challenges, there’s a glimmer of hope for the UK’s pharmaceutical sector. As CNBC reported on December 1, 2025, the UK and US governments struck a significant deal on drug pricing. The agreement, which has two key parts, will see the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) pay more for pharmaceuticals—a point of contention for years among US firms. In exchange, import taxes on UK pharmaceuticals bound for the US will be set at zero for the next three years. Reuters added that this deal includes a 25% increase in the net price the UK pays for US medicines, while UK-made drugs, medical technology, and ingredients receive exemption from both current and future US sectoral tariffs.
“The United States and the United Kingdom announce this negotiated outcome pricing for innovative pharmaceuticals, which will help drive investment and innovation in both countries,” said Jamieson Greer, United States Trade Representative, in a statement highlighted by Reuters. The deal is expected to encourage the kind of innovation needed for groundbreaking treatments, like GSK’s new asthma drug, which can be taken just twice a year and could reduce hospital admissions by up to 70% for serious sufferers. GSK expects NHS approval for this treatment within weeks of the December 11 announcement.
Dame Emma welcomed the deal, calling it “a step in the right direction” for Britain. She noted that the agreement reverses a long-term decline in the proportion of the NHS budget spent on medicines, compared to other health systems. According to the BBC, she believes this will help foster the innovation required for new therapies.
But why is the US such a magnet for pharmaceutical investment? Dame Emma, who will step down from her role in January 2026 after eight years at GSK’s helm, explained, “Alongside China, [the US] is the best market in the world to do business development.” More than half of GSK’s turnover now comes from the US, underscoring the country’s dominance in drug launches and commercial opportunities.
The deal’s impact isn’t expected to ripple across Europe. As Reuters reported on December 3, Germany’s health minister made it clear that the UK-US arrangement would not affect drug prices or statutory health insurance expenditures in Germany, thanks to existing legal regulations that override such international deals.
Meanwhile, other pharmaceutical heavyweights are making moves of their own. Sanofi, for instance, completed its acquisition of Vicebio Ltd on December 4, 2025, gaining an early-stage combination vaccine candidate for both human metapneumovirus (HMPV) and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). The acquisition, featured by Insider Monkey, leverages Vicebio’s ‘Molecular Clamp’ technology, expanding Sanofi’s vaccine portfolio with a non-mRNA option for these respiratory viruses. This strategic move is part of Sanofi’s broader effort to provide increased patient and physician choice in a rapidly evolving vaccine landscape.
However, not all news for Sanofi was positive. On December 8, 2025, JPMorgan downgraded Sanofi to Neutral from Overweight, lowering its price target from EUR 105 to EUR 95. The firm cited concerns about the company’s 2026 outlook and the lingering effects of US price pressure on sector earnings. According to CNBC, the downgrade reflects a sector-wide recalibration, with companies lacking major pipeline readouts in 2026 facing increased scrutiny.
In contrast, Novartis AG received a boost from JPMorgan on the same day, with the bank upgrading the Swiss pharmaceutical giant to Overweight and raising its price target from CHF 95 to CHF 125. This optimism was fueled by Novartis’s robust pipeline, particularly following the November 24, 2025, FDA approval of Itvisma—a gene replacement therapy for spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) in children two years and older, teens, and adults. As reported by Insider Monkey, Itvisma is now the first and only gene therapy available for this broad population, offering improved motor function and stabilization in patients regardless of their treatment history. Novartis’s management emphasized that a single dose of Itvisma can replace the defective SMN1 gene, potentially eliminating the need for chronic SMA treatment.
Pharmaceutical investment trends are also being closely watched by hedge funds, as noted by Insider Monkey. Their research suggests that tracking top hedge fund picks can lead to market-beating returns, with their model portfolio outperforming benchmarks by a wide margin since 2014. Sanofi and Novartis both feature prominently among the best pharma stocks to invest in, based on hedge fund sentiment as of Q3 2025.
Back in the UK, Dame Emma Walmsley reflected on broader health challenges facing the nation. She pointed to social demographic root causes for declining health outcomes, highlighting disparities in lifespan prospects based on postcode. “You can probably get a 10 or 15-year difference in lifespan prospects depending on which postcode you’re in,” she told the BBC. Poor diets and lack of nutrition education are part of the problem. “I think there’s no question that the food system is fundamentally something we need to look at harder,” she added.
Dame Emma also offered a personal perspective, having given birth in London, Paris, and twice in New York. She described stark differences between the NHS and US private healthcare systems: “Both the experience of childbirth and all the follow up that happens afterwards are very, very different. Anything from the advice you’re given...the frequency with which you are expected to be visited, how long you are in hospital and what kind of follow-up advice.” Her conclusion? The real challenge is finding the right balance between price, access, and outcomes—a task the NHS still struggles with.
Looking ahead, Dame Emma is optimistic about the potential for scientific advances to revolutionize healthcare. She highlighted the role of artificial intelligence in accelerating innovation, noting, “90% of the projects in our industry don’t work, they take a decade and cost billions, getting to a place where you just double that to you know, instead of 10% working, 20% working will completely change the trajectory of innovation.”
As Dame Emma prepares to leave GSK in January 2026, the pharmaceutical world stands at a crossroads—caught between shifting investment priorities, evolving government policies, and the relentless pace of scientific progress. What remains clear is her conviction: “It is one of the few things that every single person on the planet ends up caring about.”
