GSK announces name for independent Consumer Healthcare company

GlaxoSmithKline plc (GSK) today announced that the new company, to result from the proposed demerger of Consumer Healthcare from GSK in mid-2022, will be called Haleon.
Haleon (pronounced “Hay-Lee-On”) is inspired by the merging of the words “Hale”, which is an old English word that means “in good health'” and “Leon”, which is associated with the word “strength”.

The new brand identity was developed with input from employees, healthcare practitioners and consumers, and will be deployed in more than 100 markets around the world where the business operates.

The creation of Haleon is the result of a series of successful investments and strategic changes to GSK’s consumer health business over the last eoght years, including integrations of the consumer product portfolios from Novartis and Pfizer. It is now a highly valuable and focused global business generating annual sales of approximately £10 billion.

As a standalone company, Haleon will be a new world-leader in consumer healthcare, offering a compelling proposition, “to bring deep human understanding together with trusted science – to deliver better everyday health with humanity”.

“Introducing Haleon to the world marks another step in our journey to become a new, standalone company,” said Brian McNamara, Haleon Chief Executive Officer Designate. “Our name is grounded in our purpose to deliver better everyday health with humanity and to be a world-leader in consumer healthcare. We are on track to launch Haleon in mid-2022 and our business momentum is strong. We look forward to updating investors and analysts more on this at our capital markets event at the end of February.”

GSK CEO Emma Walmsley said: “Haleon brings to life years of hard work by many outstanding people to build this new company purely dedicated to everyday health. Haleon has enormous potential to improve health and wellbeing across the world with strong prospects for growth, and through listing will unlock significant value for GSK shareholders.”