GSK Opens Its Third Global Vaccines R&D Center in Rockville, MD

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) on 13th December officially opened its latest worldwide vaccines R&D center in Rockville, Maryland, where the big pharma will base 450 researchers and support staffers and invest $50 million over the coming 2 years on technology and equipment.

This recently launched center is, GSK’s first R&D center in the U.S. wholly for vaccine development. It will house twelve vaccine development programs, which includes projects supporting a shingles vaccine, for which GSK applied for FDA acceptance in October 2016.

Research and Development programs for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), Group B Streptococcus (GBS), and dengue fever will also be based at the center, to be supervised by Ripley Ballou, M.D., GSK’s VP, Vaccines.

Rockville center is the third global vaccines R&D center for GSK; the other two located in Belgium, and Italy.

In Rockville, GSK also has plans to establish its proposed Biopreparedness Organisation, a committed, permanent business that will apply a “no profit/no loss” design to planning and developing new vaccines towards growing viruses, bacteria, and other pathogens that possibly pose a risk to public health.

GSK acquired the Rockville center 4 years ago when it bought Human Genome Sciences for $3 billion. Since 2015, GSK has been preparing the Rockville site for occupancy by moving key employees and projects, setting up equipment, and modernizing the center.