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Leading academic researchers join GlaxoSmithKline in pioneering clinical-imaging programme


WEBWIRE

London, November 1st, 2005 - GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) today announces three senior appointments to lead UK-based clinical-imaging and experimental-medicine research programmes that will comprise the most modern clinical-imaging facilities in Europe.

The appointments are as follows:

* Paul Matthews has been appointed Vice President, Imaging. He will head the GSK clinical-imaging centre (CIC) to open next year at Imperial College London and coordinate academic imaging collaborations world-wide. Matthews previously headed the Department of Clinical Neurology and directed the Centre for Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Brain at the Universityof Oxford. He will continue to serve as a Medical Research Council (MRC) Clinical Research Professor with university commitments at Oxfordand ImperialCollege.
* Ed Bullmore has been appointed Vice President, Experimental Medicine. In that capacity, Bullmore will head the Addenbrooke’s Centre for Clinical Investigation in Cambridgein its use of imaging and biomarkers to support early clinical development of new treatments, especially for psychiatric, neurological, and metabolic disorders. He will continue to serve as a Professor of Psychiatry at the Universityof Cambridge, where he is Clinical Director of the Wellcome Trust/ MRC Behavioural and Clinical Neurosciences Institute. In a departure from conventional practice in the industry, he will divide his time equally between his roles in GSK and at the university to facilitate industry-academe collaborations.
* Marc Laruelle has been appointed Vice President for Clinical Molecular Imaging. He will serve as Deputy Head of the new clinical-imaging centre. He will join GSK from his current position as Director of the New YorkState Psychiatric Institute Division of Functional Brain Mapping and Professor of Psychiatry and Radiology at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, in New York.

“We are building a world-class imaging programme by assembling an exceptionally talented team as well as by investing heavily in imaging technology,” said Lefkos Middleton, Vice President, Translational Medicine & Genetics, GSK. “We are committed to using the most advanced imaging tools to better understand human diseases and facilitate the progress of new medicines to patients.”

GSK will invest £46m in the clinical-imaging centre at Imperial’s Hammersmith Hospital campus, in North West London, which is part of the UK’s largest medical school. The centre, now being planned in a partnership with the MRC, will have dedicated resources for magnetic resonance imaging and positron emission tomography together with an advanced radiochemistry development facility and optical imaging, all in a context supporting patient-related studies. ImperialCollegeand the MRC will invest £20m and £9m respectively into the state of the art centre.

The three appointments further strengthen a GSK programme to integrate imaging, biomarkers, and genetics into the new function of Translational Medicine and Genetics, headed by Middleton. Matthews, Bullmore and Laruelle join other former academic researchers who have been attracted to GSK over the past year. Among them are Barbara Weber, a leading molecular oncologist from the University of Pennsylvania and President-elect of the American Society of Clinical Investigation; Tjerk de Bruin, an expert in metabolic diseases from the University of Maastricht; and David Leppert, a neurologist from the University of Basel.

Notes to Editors

- GlaxoSmithKline and Imperial College London announced the unique research collaboration in medical imaging in March 2004. Research will focus on human studies in diseases such as cancer, stroke, neurological diseases including Alzheimer’s and multiple sclerosis and psychiatric diseases. In association with the CIC, GSK and Imperial have entered into a 10-year research agreement for medical imaging.

GlaxoSmithKline — one of the world’s leading research-based pharmaceutical and healthcare companies — is committed to improving the quality of human life by enabling people to do more, feel better and live longer.



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