Investor Woodford calls for outsider to head GlaxoSmithKline

[March 17, 2016]  LONDON (Reuters) - Fund manager Neil Woodford, a top investor in GlaxoSmithKline and a critic of the drugmaker's current structure, said on Thursday he wanted to see an outsider replace Andrew Witty as the group's chief executive.

"I have a strong preference for an external candidate," Woodford said in an e-mailed statement.

Britain's biggest drugmaker said on Thursday that Witty would retire at the end of March 2017, after leading the company since 2008, and the board would consider both internal and external candidates to replace him.

During his time at the helm Witty has struggled with flagging sales and profits and some investors - most notably Woodford - have questioned his focus on a consumer health business that ranges from headache pills to toothpaste.

Woodford has said in the past he would like to see GSK split up into its constituent parts, with consumer health separated from the company's core business of developing and selling prescription drugs.

Woodford Investment Management has a 1.23 percent stake in GSK, ranking it eighth among investors in the group, according to latest filings.

(Reporting by Ben Hirschler; editing by Jason Neely)

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