GlaxoSmithKline Space Research

GlaxoSmithKline Space Research refers to the ISS-based biologics research run by GSK plc, the UK pharmaceutical group formed in 2000 from the merger of Glaxo Wellcome and SmithKline Beecham, headquartered in London, listed on the London Stock Exchange as GSK, and employing roughly 65,000 people. GSK studies the stability and aggregation behavior of therapeutic monoclonal antibodies in the microgravity environment of the International Space Station National Laboratory, seeking to better understand the mechanics of protein aggregate formation that can limit a biologic drug's shelf life or effectiveness.

The program's co-principal investigators are Dr. Deidre Dalmas Wilk and Dr. Matthew Henry; Dalmas Wilk also sits on the ISS National Lab's Science Subcommittee User Advisory Committee, giving GSK a direct role in shaping station research priorities beyond its own experiments. According to the ISS National Lab, GSK's monoclonal-antibody stability investigations were manifested on the Northrop Grumman CRS-14 cargo mission in September 2020 and the Northrop Grumman CRS-16 mission in August 2021.

GSK is named by the ISS National Lab alongside Merck, AstraZeneca, Bristol Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly and Sanofi as one of several major pharmaceutical companies that have moved biologics-stability and drug-development research onto the space station. As with those peers, this is a specific, ongoing research program inside a much larger global pharmaceutical business rather than a standalone company.