Glaxosmithkline revenue growth boosted by shingles vaccine
UK drugmaker Glaxosmithkline (GSK) today said it expects higher earnings in 2019 than previously thought after sales of vaccines jumped 23 per cent in the second quarter of the year.
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The higher vaccine sales of £1.6bn were mostly due of GSK’s shingles vaccine Shingrix, sales of which jumped to £386m in the US in the second quarter.
The strong performance helped offset lower growth in its pharmaceuticals section after a rival firm got the green light to make a version of its profitable asthma drug Advair.
GSK now thinks earnings for 2019 will fall by three to five per cent whereas it previously foresaw a drop of five to nine per cent.
The firm also announced the appointment of Jonathan Symonds as its new chairman who will succeed Sir Philip Hampton, who has held the role for four years, on 1 September.
Symonds was formerly chief financial officer at rival drug firms Novartis and Astrazeneca.
Its share price spiked after the results were released at midday but has since cooled off to stand 0.3 per cent higher by 3.30pm UK time at 1,666p.
The drugmaker’s profit before tax rose to £1.3bn from £610m in 2018. Its turnover rose seven per cent to £7.8bn in the second quarter of 2019 compared to £7.3bn a year earlier.
Chief executive Emma Walmsley said GSK “delivered continued good operating performance in the second quarter despite the loss of exclusivity of Advair.”
She said the firm expected “new product launches” this year and saw “significant new opportunities for products in oncology, HIV and respiratory”.
GSK expects to “shortly” complete a the deal to break itself up and merge its consumer health unit with drugmaker Pfizer.
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Walmsley said this would lay “the foundation for the creation of two great companies: one in pharmaceuticals and vaccines; one in consumer healthcare”.