Investment Fund Manager: GlaxoSmithKline Should Be Broken Up, Shares Tick Higher

Neil Woodford is the founder of Woodford Investment Management, an asset management company with £12.5bn of assets under management.

Woodford is considered one of the Britain's most successful and influential investors and recently shared his thoughts of drug companies with the BBC.

Woodford told the BBC that GlaxoSmithKline plc (ADR) (NYSE: GSK) needs to undergo major restructuring and the company should be divided into separate companies. He added that in its current form, GlaxoSmithKline is "like four FTSE 100 companies bolted together."

"We'd like the business to recognise that it should focus on certain activities in the portfolio and do them better than they have done in the past, demerge the bits they haven't managed particularly well and let other people who specialise in those activities run those businesses," Woodford added.

Woodford further argued that "the sum of the parts is worth more than the current share price." However, a move to split the company into parts would involve a "heated" conflict between him and the company's CEO, Sir Andrew Witty, the BBC stated.

Investors and traders appear to have reacted to Woodford's comments. Shares of GlaxoSmithKline were trading higher by nearly 3 percent at $40.12 on Friday.