Not with the Glaxo ceo, anyway. But the indefatigable JP brushes off investor pressure to ‘do something’ to fix the drugmaker’s woes, which were accelerated this year by the debate over its Avandia diabetes med and cardiovascular side effects.

There’s speculation about selling the consumer health biz, part of the pharma biz or the vaccines unit. JP, though, is having none of it. In defensive chats with UK newspapers, he trots out some stats to defend his reign, which by the way, ends with retirement in May. Garnier, meanwhile, tells The Daily Telegraph that Glaxo is actually doing better.

“Nobody is happy about the de-rating of an industry but… there is no question, the fundamentals of the company are better. We have improved our cost ratios every year since the merger so this has been a very successful effort to strengthen the fundamentals of the company…”Glaxo’s productivity is 300 per cent above the average of our seven largest competitors.”

And JP denies interest in selling the consumer health unit. “Healthcare is becoming far more consumer-centric in both existing and the new economies.” He calls “absolute nonsense” the idea of selling therapy areas or vaccines. “Our raison d’être is research and development,” he tells The Financial Times. “Why would we sell off the most important part of our company?”