Second, a government-backed framework for the two sides to share the accumulated pain of unpaid rents. Hospitality firms, broadly defined, are estimated to have built up £2.5bn of unpaid rent during the pandemic and the hardball class of landlord will want to grab what it can. But the broad principle of “burden sharing”, or rent forgiveness, in the hospitality sector seems sound. It was a potentially hazardous ambition given the high prices for promising cancer treatments, but GSK hasn’t obviously messed up. That detail will be irrelevant unless next week’s portrait of the overall pharma business is deemed ambitious and credible.

Source: The Guardian June 14, 2021 18:39 UTC