GlaxoSmithKline is looking to form long-term partnerships with top university researchers to more effectively develop new drugs. GSK wants to work closely with these "superstar researchers" from the initial research stages all the way through to drug launch. This will allow GSK to benefit from the universities' knowledge while providing funding for the researchers that will be paid back if an successful drug results. GSK has already signed an agreement with Professor Mark Pepys from University College London to develop a treatment for a rare heart condition.

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level of difficulty
working with universities
Products
Before you read
Do universities work with companies in your country to develop new
products? If so, give some examples (perhaps by doing some research
on the Internet). If not, give some reasons why.
Reading
Read this article from the Financial Times by Andrew Jack and answer
the questions.
GSK looks to universities for new drugs
By Andrew Jack
GlaxoSmithKline aims to start
working this year with 10
university “superstar researchers”
in long-term partnerships to
5 help develop medicines more
effectively and cheaply. The
aim is to work closely with
leading medical researchers
over a decade, all the way to the
10 launch of a new drug. This will
allow GSK to use its knowledge
while providing the university
researchers with investment that
will be more than paid back if a
15 new drug is successful.
While big drug companies
have often licensed ideas from
universities and then take full
control, GSK wants instead to
20 continue working with leading
medical researchers who prefer
to remain in their current jobs
rather than become employees of
a biotechnology company.
25 Patrick Vallance, senior vice-
president for drug discovery and
development at GSK, said: “We
want partnerships that allow
university researchers to work all
30 the way through to the end of the
project, getting a big reward if a
medicine is launched.” The move
comes as the UK pharmaceutical
group cuts back on expensive but
35 unproductive in-house research
and attempts to change from
investment in their own research
centres towards partnerships with
outside developers.
40 GSK has recently signed a
contract with Professor Mark
Pepys, head of medicine at the
RoyalFreeandUniversityCollege
Medical School in London,
45 designed to develop a treatment
for a rare form of heart disease. Mr
Vallance said he planned to sign
10 such deals this year. Under the
agreement, Prof Pepys’ company
50 Pentraxin Therapeutics receives a
small upfront fee allowing GSK
to gain an exclusive licence for
his experimental drug when it
is launched. “It’s a wonderful
55 idea,” said Prof Pepys. “This new
partnership with GSK is very
exciting.”
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1 Look through the whole article. Is it about
finding new drugs in:
a) the Amazon jungle?
b) university laboratories?
c) drug companies’ laboratories?
2 Look through the whole article and find the
names of:
a) a pharmaceutical company.
b) someone who works for it.
c) his job title.
d) a university researcher.
e) his job title.
f) the university department that he works for.
g) a company that he has started.
3 Find words in paragraph 1 that mean the
following.
a) a noun for someone who is very famous in their
profession s _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
b) an adjective that means ‘over a long time’
l _ _ _ - t _ _ _
c) a plural noun for people working together
p _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
d) an adverb to say that something is done in a good
way e _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
e) an adverb to say that something is done without
spending a lot of money c _ _ _ _ _ _
f) an adverb to describe the way that people work
together c _ _ _ _ _ _
g) a noun for the time when a new product is sold
for the first time l _ _ _ _ _
h) a noun for a period of 10 years
d _ _ _ _ _
i) a word ending in -ing that means ‘giving’
p _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
j) an adjective to say that the result of something
is good s _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
4 Read paragraph 2 and decide if these
statements about expressions are true or
false.
If …
a) a company licenses (line 17) ideas from a
university, it pays the university to use them.
b) you take full control (lines 18–19) of something,
you share control with others.
c) you prefer x rather than y (lines 21–23), you like y
more.
d) you get a reward (line 31) for something, you get
money, etc. for the work that you did on it.
e) a company cuts back (line 34) spending on
something, it increases the amount that it
spends.
f) work is unproductive (line 35), it gets good
results.
g) you attempt (line 36) to do something, you try
to do it.
5 Complete the table with words from lines
19–52, in the form they are used in the
article.
verb noun
control
discover
develop
treat
plan
agree
license
6 Now match the nouns in Exercise 5 to their
meanings.
a) a way of curing a disease
b) when you pay for the right to use someone’s
ideas in a product
c) when two or more people decide to work together
on something
d) the power to make someone or something do
what you want
e) a series of actions, etc. to achieve a result
f) making or improving something
g) finding something new
Over to you 1
Should the purpose of universities be more for a)
teaching, b) pure research, or c) research to develop
new products? Give your reasons.
Over to you 2
Which possible new products could these university
departments be involved with developing?
• Engineering
• Chemistry
• Linguistics
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level of difficulty
Products
returning unwanted products
Before you read
Returns are products that are sent back to the manufacturer or
supplier because they don’t work or because customers have changed
their minds. How often do you return products a) to shops and b) to
online retailers? Is it easy to do this?
Reading
Read this article from the Financial Times by Sarah Murray and answer
the questions.
Hidden beauty of the ‘uglies’
By Sarah Murray
With computers, transport
managers can pack a truck so
that only the minimum of space
is left empty. They can work out
5 exactly how to fill the vehicle
with goods ready for market.
But what about transporting the
“uglies” – the boxes of different
shapes and sizes containing
10 broken and unwanted products –
back to the manufacturer?
Martin Patten, manager of
the technology programme for
Europe at Cisco Systems, the
15 computer equipment supplier,
says, “You can’t use space on
trucks in the best way for returns
becausepeoplemightusedifferent
wrapping or put things in bigger
20 boxes.” Worse, products usually
need to be collected from all sorts
of different places. As a result, it
can cost four times as much to
take something back as to send
25 it out.
One factor behind increasing
return rates is the growth in online
retailing. “With online shopping
there’s an attitude of ‘I’ll buy it
30 and, if I don’t like it, I’ll send it
back’,” says Jonathan Wright, a
senior executive in Accenture’s
global supply chain consultancy.
“With Internet sales, up to one
35 in five products gets sent back,
which is huge.”
Moreover, if that process is
inconvenient, shoppers can go
to other online retailers for their
40 purchases. “If returning products
is not customer-friendly, it’s going
to hurt the retailer’s business,”
says Scott Harkins, vice-president
of product marketing at FedEx.
45 However, an even bigger
challenge is on the way. European
Union law now requires
manufacturers and importers of
electronic goods to collect and
50 recycle them at the end of their
lives. “The transport of goods
after the sale of the product is now
as important as it is before the
sale, and that’s a huge change,”
55 says Mr Wright.
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1 Look at the headline and look quickly
through the whole article. What are ‘uglies’?
Why do they have this name?
2 Complete these statements with expressions
from paragraphs 1 and 2.
a) If you p a truck, you put goods
on to it.
b) If you calculate how to do something, you
w o how to
do it.
c) In speaking and writing, you can introduce a new
idea with ‘w
a ’.
d) Products that are sent back to the supplier or
manufacturer are called r .
e) Material used to protect and contain a product is
its w .
f) If you take something from a particular place, you
c it from there.
g) If companies transport goods for delivery, they
s them o .
3 Read paragraphs 3 and 4 and decide if these
statements are true or false.
a) Customers are sending more products back
because of poor quality.
b) People shopping online buy things knowing that
they can always send them back.
c) The percentage of goods bought online and
returned is not very big.
d) Sending things back is always easy, so there is no
competition between online retailers on this.
4 Choose the alternative with the closest
meaning to the expression in italic.
a) Moreover (line 37), if that process is inconvenient, …
i) But
ii) Then
iii) In addition
b) … shoppers can go to other online retailers for
their purchases. (lines 39–40)
i) the things that they buy
ii) the things that they sell
iii) the things that they return
c) “If returning products is not customer-friendly …
(line 41)
i) easy for customers to use
ii) hard for customers to use
iii) difficult for customers to use
d) … it’s going to hurt (line 42) the retailer’s
business,” says Scott Harkins, vice-president of
product marketing at FedEx.
i) help
ii) support
iii) damage
e) However (line 45), an even bigger challenge is on
the way.
i) And
ii) But
iii) Although
f) European Union law now requires (line 47)
manufacturers and importers of electronic goods
to collect and recycle them at the end of their
lives.
i) forces
ii) needs
iii) allows
g) “The transport of goods after the sale of the
product is now as important as it is before the
sale (lines 53–54), and that’s a huge change,”
says Mr Wright.
i) they sell
ii) they are sold
iii) they are selling
5 Look through the whole article again. Which
two of these things are not specifically
mentioned in relation to returning goods?
a) The cost of fuel for trucks.
b) The difficulty of packing returned goods on
trucks.
c) Returning goods bought online.
d) The difficulty of arranging a convenient time to
collect things.
e) New EU rules on recycling.
Over to you 1
With Internet sales, up to one in five products gets sent
back, which is huge. Does this figure surprise you?
Why? / Why not?
Over to you 2
Online shopping for clothes has grown very quickly in
recent years. Will this growth continue, or will there be
a natural limit to it? Think, for example, about:
• the difficulty of choosing the right clothes.
• problems in returning them when they are not
suitable or the wrong size.
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