Glaxo’s New Research Chief Loves Big Pharma. Now He Has To Fix It

"What, exactly, is this meeting for?”

It might seem an odd, even brusque question, especially when asked to the CEO of a major pharmaceutical company by a recently hired employee. But it’s how Hal Barron, the new chief scientific officer of GlaxoSmithKline, likes to kick off meetings, even when he is meeting his boss, Glaxo chief executive Emma Walmsley.