One of the biggest corporate handovers of the year will take place today when Andrew Witty succeeds JP Garnier as chief executive of GlaxoSmithKline, Europe’s largest pharmaceuticals company.

Yesterday, Mr Garnier had his final encounter with GSK’s shareholders at its annual meeting. He had a few difficult questions to answer amid gushing praise from his successor and Sir Christopher Gent, GSK’s chairman.

GSK’s share price is languishing about 40 per cent lower than when the company was formed by merger in 2000. It will suffer this year from the expiry of six patents for drugs, including Coreg, its hypertension treatment, and Lamictal, for epilepsy.

Mr Witty, described as an “agent of change” by Sir Christopher yesterday, is set to address the problem by focusing on the consumer side of the business and by increasing GSK’s presence in emerging markets. He has already launched a division designed to boost sales in Brazil, Russia, India and China, to be run by Abbas Hussain, whom he poached from Eli Lilly.

Mr Garnier led the merger of SmithKline Beecham with Glaxo Wellcome in 2000, revamping both companies’ research and development structure. This means that, although there are few billion-dollar blockbuster drugs in the pipeline, there should be a steady stream of treatments for more niche areas with respectable but not spectacular sales coming through after 2010.

Mr Witty, 43, is one of a new generation of big pharma chief executives that includes Severin Schwan, 40, who took over at Roche, of Switzerland, two months ago, and Jeff Kindler, 52, who took over at Pfizer in December 2006. GSK insiders describe Mr Witty as “dynamic” . The Yorkshire-born executive may avoid taking a large bonus for the next couple of years. Yesterday shareholders protested against a £2.5 million bonus awarded in February to Chris Viehbacher, head of pharmaceuticals, in a move to retain him after he was passed over for the top job. Excluding abstentions, 86 per cent backed the report — a low level of support on a pay vote.

In 2003 Mr Garnier also came under fire when shareholders revolted against a golden parachute deal that would have given him $18 million if he had been dismissed.

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