Andrew Witty
Management
Let me start by saying, I really think that 2009 was a very important year for GSK, more than for any other reason that it really started to demonstrate that the strategy that we've been deploying over the last couple of years has really begun to bite and start to deliver. And that's being true across a number of parts of the business that I'll describe in a few minutes. I think it's also an important year, psychologically, because it saw the return to sales growth for the first time, since 2007. And it's sometimes interesting, and I did this little analysis on Friday just to look back and during '07, '08, and '09 between U.S. generics and the loss of an Avandia sales, the company actually lost £4.5 billion of turnover in the '07,'08, '09 period, but actually grew by 500 million. So, in that period, where we clearly had tremendous pressure on us from U.S. generics and Avandia to name just a couple of big areas, we've been able to grow the overall business, actually added £5 billion of new sales over those three years. And of course, in 2009, what you started to see is that reflected in a net growth of sales, as the headwinds have started to diminish and the tailwinds have started to become stronger. And that's because, A, obviously, a change in some of those negatives, but, B, more importantly, coming on stream of a whole series of sources of growth for the business. In some ways, as I look forward now into 2010, really start to see the company come through what you might have regarded, as its patent cliff in terms of saying goodbye to a whole portfolio of legacy brands in the U.S. marketplace. I am not too humorous this…