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(Alliance News) - GSK PLC on Wednesday raised its annual earnings forecast, and said it expects sales growth at the top-end of guidance, after a "strong" start to the year.
Its shingles drug, Shingrix, was one stand-out performer, but GSK said it is seeing momentum across all business areas.
Shares in GSK were up 2.0% to 1,706.00 pence in London on Wednesday morning.
The London-based pharmaceutical maker said revenue in the first-quarter of the year was up 5.9% to GBP7.36 billion from GBP6.95 billion a year prior.
Pretax profit, however, weakened 29% to GBP1.36 billion from GBP1.91 billion. GSK reported 'other' expenses worth GBP533 million, swung from GBP297 million in gains a year prior and hurting its bottom line. Cost of sales rose 1.5% to GBP1.97 billion from GBP1.94 billion.
Earnings per share were 43.1p compared to 36.8p a year ago.
GSK reported "business momentum" across all product areas, particularly in Vaccines and Specialty Medicines, including sales contributions from newly launched vaccines and medicines Arexvy and Ojjaara respectively. General Medicines, particularly Trelegy, also performed better than expected, it said.
Vaccines sales rose 22% at constant current to GBP2.28 billion with sales of shingles drug Shingrix up 18% to GBP945 million. Sales of respiratory syncytial virus treatment Arexvy were GBP182 million.
Specialty Medicines sales rose 17% at constant current to GBP2.52 billion, with sales of HIV drugs up 14% at GBP1.61 billion.
General Medicines sales edged up by 1% to GBP2.56 billion. Here, sales of Trelegy, a medicine used to relieve the symptoms of moderate to severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, rose 33% at constant currency to GBP591 million.
For 2024, GSK expects turnover growth, at constant currency, towards the upper part of 5% to 7% range; core operating profit growth of 9% to 11%, up from 7% to 10% before; and core EPS growth of 8% to 10%, up from 6% to 9% before.
Chief Executive Officer Emma Walmsley said: "We have made a strong start to 2024, with another quarter of excellent performance and continued pipeline progress, including positive data read outs for 4 phase III medicines. These, together with other R&D achievements, mean we have strengthened prospects for growth in all of our key therapeutic areas this quarter: infectious diseases, HIV, respiratory/immunology and oncology. We expect this strong momentum to continue, and look forward to delivering another year of meaningful growth in sales and earnings in 2024."
GSK declares a dividend for the first quarter of 15p per share and, as previously guided, expects to pay out 60p for the full year. This will be up 3.4% from 58p in 2023, though still down from 61.25p in 2022.
By Jeremy Cutler, Alliance News reporter
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