Our morale is strong, insists GSK

GLAXOSMITHKLINE claims morale remained strong despite the departure of three top scientists. But there is concern in the investment community after a dramatic slump in the drug giant's share price, loss of patents on key medicines and worries about the strength of new drugs in the pipeline.

Three of six scientists appointed to run new centres of excellence to develop new drugs have either gone or will soon depart.

The drugs giant pointed out that the first to go, Bob Ruffalo, left in November 2000, while Marty Rosenberg retired in April last year. Dr Frank Walsh is serving notice. It said the merger to create GSK had gone well. A leading analyst said morale was 'not particularly high'.

He said: 'You have to accept a bit of poaching and, in any big merger, you get some nastiness.' There are worries that reorganising research centres may not have worked out as well as GSK, which has crashed from 2110p, bounced 32p to 1179p.