JP Garnier turns 60 next month and he retires in May, which means the drugmaker’s board must soon make up its collective mind about who will succeed the indefatigable leader as ceo. The race is between three insiders and The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) provides a quick update on the status of the process…

Andrew Witty, a 44-year-old Briton, has reorganized Glaxo’s European operations to run more efficiently, assigning marketing execs by disease and centralizing some back-office jobs. He won praise internally for delivering solid sales in Europe despite tough generic competition and increasingly frugal state health-care systems.

Dave Stout, a 54-year-old American, has clout in Washington, an important asset as politicians increasingly speak of the need to rein in drug prices. He started his career as a drug-sales representative for Warner-Lambert, and has focused on improving sales-force performance at Glaxo and ensuring that all sales reps globally adhere to the same ethical guidelines. He worked with JP at Schering-Plough before both men jumped to SmithKline Beecham, which merged with Glaxo Wellcome in 2000 to form GlaxoSmithKline.

Chris Viehbacher, 48, raised his exposure with investors and the media this summer by steering Glaxo through the Avandia safety crisis. A dual citizen of Canada and Germany, he speaks English, French and German and ran the European business before taking over the US in 2003, giving him broad global experience.

The candidates have been getting public exposure as well as face-time with the board. They have each made presentations about their businesses at board meetings and met directors over dinner, the paper writes They’ve also spoken often at conferences and meet frequently with key investors and analysts. Last fall, for instance, Viehbacher and his top managers described their business results and plans before Glaxo’s chairman, Christopher Gent, during an all-day session at a Glaxo facility in Research Triangle Park, N.C. “It was kind of an audition,” he says.

Of course, Glaxo is under increasing investor pressure to raise its share price, which has dropped due to a lack of new meds and the Avandia crisis. But these three execs form the same group that helped JP bring Glaxo to this illustrious point. If the board takes JP’s advice to tap one of them, might such a move signal more of the same, ahem, leadership?