GSK opened its consumer health spin off, Haleon, July 18 on the London market after eight years of work. The business is currently valued at $36 billion, Bloomberg reported.
GSK will focus on prescription drugs and vaccines while Haleon will focus on consumer health, selling products from brands such as Sensodyne toothpaste and Advil painkillers. The company already has two deals in the works to switch some prescription only medicines to over the counter.
"Its big-brand pulling power should help it hang onto customers, who may trade down other products in shopping baskets instead," Susannah Streeter, senior analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown told Bloomberg.