Pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is being forced to recruit overseas because there is such a dire lack of science graduates in the UK, the drugs company has warned.
Dr Jackie Hunter, a senior vice-president at GSK, who leads one of the firm’s global drug development centres, said the UK was suffering from an acute shortage of qualified scientists, the Times reports.
The situation meant GSK had to recruit from France, Spain, Germany and India.
Merck & Co., mired in multibillion litigation over its withdrawn painkiller Vioxx, has eliminated another legal headache, resolving several tax disputes with the Internal Revenue Service by agreeing to a $2.3 billion settlement.
In announcing the agreement Wednesday, the Whitehouse Station, N.J.-based company said the settlement resolves all outstanding tax disputes with the IRS, covering the years 1993 through 2006. Merck had faced potential taxes, interest and penalties totaling as much as $3.8 billion, but the agreement apparently reduced that amount.
Neither Merck nor the IRS would discuss the reduction.
