GSK

About us

We have a challenging and inspiring mission: to improve the quality of human life by enabling people to do more, feel better and live longer. This mission gives us the purpose to develop innovative medicines and products that help millions of people around the world. In fact, we believe we are the only pharmaceutical company researching both medicines and vaccines for the World Health Organization’s three priority diseases – HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, and are very proud to have developed some of the leading global medicines in these fields.

Headquartered in the UK and with operations based in the US, we are one of the industry leaders, with an estimated seven per cent of the world's pharmaceutical market.

But being a leader brings responsibility. This means that we care about the impact that we have on the people and places touched by our mission to improve health around the world.

It also means that we must help developing countries where debilitating disease affects millions of people and access to life-changing medicines and vaccines is a problem. To meet this challenge, we are committed to providing discounted medicines where they are needed the most.

As a company with a firm foundation in science, we have a flair for research and a track record of turning that research into powerful, marketable drugs. Every hour we spend more than £300,000 (US$562,000) to find new medicines.

We produce medicines that treat six major disease areas – asthma, virus control, infections, mental health, diabetes and digestive conditions. In addition, we are a leader in the important area of vaccines and are developing new treatments for cancer.

We also market other products, many of which are among the market leaders:

• over-the-counter (OTC) medicines including Gaviscon and Panadol
• dental products such as Aquafresh and Macleans
• smoking control products Nicorette/Niquitin
• nutritional healthcare drinks such as Lucozade, Ribena and Horlicks

Work Experience programmes at GSK

GSK offers a wide range of work experience programmes for different academic levels, disciplines and duration of placement. These are available at most of our sites and across many of the business areas, including Research & Development, IT, Manufacturing and Consumer Healthcare. Full details of all the opportunities, including the online application procedure, can be found on the Working at GSK section of our website.

The Chemistry and Drug Metabolism one-year industrial placement programmes have received a Quality Mark in recognition of the high standard of work experience that is provided at GSK. Typically, students spend 3-12 months at GSK in their penultimate year at university as part of their undergraduate studies.

The Chemistry programme is designed to allow the student to develop practical synthetic organic or analytical chemistry skills in a way that is complementary to what has been learned at university.

The Drug Metabolism programme is designed to allow the student to develop their bioanalytical and pharmaceutical knowledge. The science that the students will be engaged in involve examining the absorption, distribution, metabolism & elimination (ADME) of drugs.

Whilst at GSK, the students are fully integrated into the multi-disciplinary teams working on discovering and developing tomorrow’s medicines. Throughout the placement, the student has a personalised development plan in which general employability skills are also developed to ensure that the student will benefit from the experience whatever their chosen career.