{"text":[[{"start":9.75,"text":"Luke Miels had been chief executive of GSK for only six months when he announced the biggest bet of his career. This week’s $10.6bn megadeal with US cancer biotech Nuvalent was the UK pharma group’s largest biotech acquisition in more than 25 years. "}],[{"start":29.1,"text":"It was also a statement of intent by the soft-spoken 51-year-old Australian. GSK is seeking to build a cancer business that can compete with larger rivals, help it meet ambitious growth targets and go towards offsetting the loss of patent protections on its best-selling medicines elsewhere."}],[{"start":47.25,"text":"People who know Miels were not surprised by the scale of the deal. “He sees the bigger picture and is not an incremental person,” says one senior executive who worked with him at AstraZeneca. “When you come into a new job, you have to make a big statement to show where you’re taking the company.”"}],[{"start":65.6,"text":"When GSK announced last year that Dame Emma Walmsley would step down as CEO, there was no succession battle. Miels, her trusted lieutenant, was confirmed for the job on the same day."}],[{"start":77.5,"text":"His start at the pharma group nine years previously was less straightforward. Poached from AstraZeneca where he was overseeing European operations, Miels’s decision to leave for a rival was not well received by AstraZeneca’s formidable boss Sir Pascal Soriot, who has led the company since 2012."}],[{"start":98.3,"text":"AstraZeneca sued Miels and the dispute threatened to turn acrimonious, with Miels alleging the company threatened his visa status, while AstraZeneca accused him of potentially misusing company documents and disputed his notice period. "}],[{"start":112.89999999999999,"text":"“Pascal felt a betrayal of loyalty even though he understood Luke’s ambitions,” said an executive who knows both men. “He wanted Luke to go anywhere but GSK.”"}],[{"start":122.89999999999999,"text":"The impasse was resolved with an out-of-court settlement and the two men are said to have repaired the relationship since then."}],[{"start":130.85,"text":"Miels’s difficult departure was driven in part by his own ambitions to lead a pharmaceutical group. “He was highly regarded at AstraZeneca,” said one industry executive. “But he was always seen as Pascal’s understudy.” That decision seems to have been vindicated. "}],[{"start":147.35,"text":"Born in 1974 in Australia, Miels studied biology in Adelaide before completing an MBA at Macquarie University in Sydney. Colleagues describe him as “low-ego” and “non-hierarchical”, a mild-mannered man who weighs his every word, prefers meetings that run no longer than 45 minutes and shuns the limelight."}],[{"start":167.45,"text":"A big fan of James Bond, he is as comfortable talking about the intricacies of Ian Fleming’s plots as the merits of a biotech deal. He still goes back to Perth, where his family owns a farm in nearby Margaret River and rears cattle. "}],[{"start":180.64999999999998,"text":"Miels’s itinerant career has spanned three continents, with stints in the US, China, Thailand and Australia where his career began as an AstraZeneca sales representative in 1995. “He moved roles to move fast,” said one former colleague. “It was very evident that he wanted to lead a company one day.”"}],[{"start":201.14999999999998,"text":"It was his commercial nous that caused Walmsley to bring him to GSK after she became CEO in 2017. At the time, activist shareholders had been pushing for a break-up. GSK’s late-stage pipeline was bare and Miels was tasked with working with the R&D team to accelerate in-house development and move faster on acquiring complementary drugs from biotechs."}],[{"start":224.29999999999998,"text":"“Luke is focused and ambitious, and has an impatience — in a good way — to get things done,” says an executive who worked with him at AstraZeneca. "}],[{"start":233.1,"text":"Miels was key in making AstraZeneca a force in cancer treatment, a feat he now seems set on repeating at GSK. "}],[{"start":241,"text":"Oncology remains a crowded, competitive and potentially very lucrative market. But GSK’s interest has traditionally been underpinned by a series of piecemeal deals that weren’t big enough to catapult it into the upper echelons."}],[{"start":255.2,"text":"That changed this week when Miels surprised the market with the headline-grabbing Nuvalent megadeal. This gives GSK two late-stage lung cancer drugs that Miels has described as having the potential to be “best in class”. "}],[{"start":269.59999999999997,"text":"It is also a significant bet that oncology can help the group reach its target of more than £40bn in annual revenues by 2031, while offsetting the impact of patent expiries for dolutegravir, its best-selling HIV medicine, which accounted for nearly 20 per cent of revenues last year."}],[{"start":286.74999999999994,"text":"Miels spent a lot of his time as chief commercial officer at GSK identifying acquisition targets. He has continued that in his new role. “He’s very intuitive about the type of science to invest in,” said a senior GSK executive. “He’s more directive in our investment decisions on science because he has strong views. It’s not a dictatorship and we have competent people but he’s directive and forceful in driving some decisions.”"}],[{"start":311.49999999999994,"text":"Investors seem pleased so far, with the company’s share price rising more than 8 per cent since he took office. But the task ahead remains daunting. GSK is considered a perennial laggard compared to its peers and is still far smaller than AstraZeneca, the company Miels left nearly a decade ago. "}],[{"start":330.24999999999994,"text":"But those who know him say he strongly believes he can make GSK a force once again. "}],[{"start":336.34999999999997,"text":"“I say to Luke that he has been very lucky,” said another GSK executive. “He has inherited a good business and he doesn’t need to come up with a new plan. He just needs to move fast and execute the existing plan more effectively.”"}],[{"start":358.2,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1781366852_4397.mp3"}