The fact that the lumbering pharmaceutical firm – or “global biopharma company”, as it now prefers – was developing a vaccine against the virus was incidental. Hopefully, any association will soon be positive, if GSK’s discretely named immunotherapeutic candidate, 3943104A, can move out of the proof-of-concept stage, onto clinical trials, and into a sexual health clinic near you.
At the time, the frustration with the business was clear. By 2021, GSK had held a place in the Bearbull income portfolio for over two decades, and with little to show for it.