GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) announces that it will create a seventh Centre of Excellence for Drug Discovery (CEDD), extending the company's new model for pharmaceutical research and development.

The additional CEDD will concentrate on biopharmaceuticals, a field where GSK is progressing a growing number of assets in its early-stage pipeline. The biopharmaceuticals CEDD will begin operations by year-end.

"The CEDDs that were created at the formation of GSK have enabled sharp productivity gains," said Dr. Tadataka Yamada, chairman, research and development, GSK. "We will now bring the well-defined accountability and entrepreneurial drive that characterizes our CEDDs to the promise of our biopharmaceutical portfolio. We intend to become an industry leader in providing physicians and their patients with novel biopharmaceutical therapies."

Large pharmaceutical companies traditionally specialize in medicines that are small molecules, administered orally. Biopharmaceuticals, by contrast, are large molecules typically administered by injection or infusion, though research continues in other delivery technologies. Examples of biopharmaceuticals are monoclonal antibodies, therapeutic vaccines, and recombinant therapeutic proteins.

Currently, GSK R&D comprises six CEDDs to manage the progression of compounds in the "middle" of the pipeline. While drawing from the broader resources of the organization, the CEDDs bridge the conventional gap between discovery and development. They bring together scientists and physicians who concentrate on specific disease groupings, as follows: cardiovascular and urogenital diseases; metabolic and viral diseases; microbial, musculoskeletal, and proliferative diseases (cancer); neurological and gastrointestinal diseases; psychiatric diseases; and respiratory and inflammatory diseases.