Under-fire boss of GlaxoSmithKline PLC (LSE:GSK), Emma Walmsley, has received support from an unlikely source: Pascal Soriot, the boss of rival pharma giant AstraZeneca PLC (LSE:AZN).
In an interview with The Daily Mail, Soriot advised Walmsley to stick to her guns and implement her business plan.
The GlaxoSmithKline chief executive officer has come under pressure from activist investor Elliott Advisors, which has suggested Walmsley is unsuited to run the drugs giant because she isn’t a scientist.
“It's important that the pharmaceutical companies understand every aspect of the firm. You don't necessarily need to be a scientist. Over the years very smart people will gain the knowledge and be able to be fluent in discussions with scientists,” Soriot told the Mail.
With a number of medium-sized and large British companies succumbing to bids from overseas companies – one of the most recent being Meggitt PLC (LSE:MGGT) – Soriot suggested that the boards of some companies had rolled over too easily and that selling out to a foreign owner is often a bad thing for a company.
“'First the company disappears, it becomes a branch. Then the substance [the R&D and science] disappears. It takes five years but it happens,” Soriot said.
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AstraZeneca, of course, fought off the unwelcome attentions of US drugs giant Pfizer (NYSE:PFE), which tried to sweeten the takeover pill with the usual assurances about protecting British jobs.
“In AZ's case, when it came under siege we had a chairman who, when he says no, it's no,” Soriot declared.
Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) was prepared to offer £50 a share back in 2014; the shares are now trading at more than £83.
Since then, many British companies – and the institutions invested in them – have seemed happy to take the money and run.
“'Senior non-executives seem not to have stood up,” Soriot suggested.