Research and development approach

R&D is central to our purpose to get ahead of disease together. By combining the science of the immune system with leading edge technology, we discover and develop new vaccines and medicines that will transform people’s lives.

USA lab wide shot of two people working in lab

R&D is the core of our innovation

In 2023, our R&D expenditure was £6.2 billion, up 13.4% AER and 13.6% CER on 2022.

We’ve also strengthened our pipeline and technology capabilities through business development, seeking out new, differentiated opportunities in diseases with high patient need.

We have world-leading capabilities in vaccines and medicines development. Our pipeline is focused on delivering substantial and differentiated impact for patients – through new solutions not available today or potentially new standards of care. We are focused on combining scientific potential with unmet patient need and commercial value.

We are bringing stronger alignment to our core therapeutic areas and embedding tech to accelerate research to deliver our pipeline better and faster, positioning us to become the industry leader in technology-enabled research.

We prioritise flawless execution of our late-stage pipeline and acceleration of our organic pipeline to deliver innovation faster.

Technology powers our R&D. We use human genetics, functional genomics, along with artificial intelligence and machine learning to deeply understand the patient, human biology, and disease mechanisms.

We can access and analyse huge volumes of data beyond the ability of the human brain, to find connections and predict patterns in disease, and identify novel
genetic targets.

How our R&D approach is getting us ahead of disease

  • Vaccines and medicines in the pipeline

    71
  • Major approvals

    4
  • Number of assets in phase III/registration in 2023

    18
  • Number of phase I programmes started in 2023

    8

What therapeutic areas are we focusing on?

We prioritise research into vaccines and medicines across our four core therapeutic areas of infectious diseases, HIV, respiratory/immunology, and oncology. We also remain open to opportunities outside of these core areas where the science aligns with our strategic approach. We continue to strengthen our pipeline of vaccines and medicines, applying our growing expertise and partnerships in technology and data to increase the productivity of our R&D.