GSK raises profit guidance after strong sales of shingles vaccine

GSK has raised its full-year revenue and profit guidance after soaring sales of its shingles vaccine helped the UK drugmaker beat expectations in the second quarter of the year.

The pharmaceutical company expects sales to grow 6-8 per cent in 2022, up from its previous forecast of 5-7 per cent. The new guidance for adjusted operating profit growth is 13-15 per cent, above its previous forecast of 12-14 per cent.

The results are the first since GSK spun off its consumer health division Haleon this month.

Emma Walmsley, GSK chief executive, said the company was strengthening its pipeline of future drugs, pointing to a recent positive trial result for its vaccine candidate for the respiratory syncytial virus.

“This is GSK’s first set of results as a newly focused biopharma company, and we have delivered an excellent second-quarter performance, with strong growth in speciality medicines, including HIV, and a record quarter for our shingles vaccine Shingrix,” she said.

Describing RSV as a “horrible disease”, she said analysts believed the market for an adult vaccine to prevent it was a “multibillion-pound opportunity”. 

“The world has started to recognise that adult vaccination is simply one of the best possible things you can do for a healthcare budget,” she said.

But she played down the prospects for GSK’s Covid-19 vaccine developed with Sanofi, saying: “There’s nothing in our guidance, nothing in our outlook and we’ve said we’ve got limited expectations.”

Walmsley engineered the Haleon spin-off, Europe’s largest demerger for 20 years, to enable the remaining GSK to concentrate on higher-value prescription medicines and vaccines, reduce its debt and give it cash to invest in its pipeline.

As well as internal research and development, GSK is likely to continue pursuing bolt-on acquisitions. In the past few months it has acquired blood cancer specialist Sierra Oncology for £1.5bn and vaccine company Affinivax for up to $3.3bn. 

Shares in GSK, which have risen 23 per cent in the past year, have been largely flat since Haleon listed on July 18. Haleon stock has edged lower by 0.5 per cent.

Total revenue for GSK was £6.9bn, up 13 per cent year on year at constant exchange rates and higher than the consensus forecast for £6.3bn. Sales of Shingrix more than doubled at constant exchange rates to £731mn, marking a recovery after suffering from supply shortages because of Covid-19 vaccination campaigns. Sales of HIV treatments were up 7 per cent at constant exchange rates to £1.4bn.

Sales of GSK’s Covid-19 antibody treatment declined to £500mn from £1.3bn in the first quarter, and the company expects a further fall in the second half of the year.

Adjusted earnings per share were 34.7p, up 6 per cent year on year at constant exchange rates, and above the average analyst estimate for 29.3p. Operating profit was £1.1bn, down from £1.3bn in the same quarter the year before.