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* Shares fall as much as 3%
* Sees 2020 profit falling by between 1% and 4%
* Q4 sales and profit miss analyst estimates
(Recasts; adds details on coronavirus impact, pharma business)
By Pushkala Aripaka and Ankur Banerjee
Feb 5 (Reuters) - GlaxoSmithKline missed
fourth-quarter earnings forecasts on Wednesday as cheap
competition to the British drugmaker's respiratory medicines
offset strong growth in sales of its shingles vaccine.
GSK shares fell as much as 3% after the company also said
adjusted earnings for this year could fall as much as 4%.
Under Chief Executive Emma Walmsley, the London-listed firm
has sold several assets, and bought others in fast-growing
markets such as oncology, to try to rejuvenate growth as several
of its older drugs face losing patent protection.
On Wednesday, the company said it would look at selling more
non-core assets, starting with a review of its prescription
dermatology business.
It also launched the two-year programme to split into two
entities following the merger of its over-the-counter products
business into a venture with Pfizer.
Vaccines and prescription treatments including for HIV will
play a larger role in driving GSK's growth going forward as
older treatments, including asthma drug Advair, face competition
from generic medicines.
"Once a patent expires rivals pile in, forcing the incumbent
to cut prices even as volumes tumble and the result is always
painful," said Nicholas Hyett, an equity analyst at Hargreaves
Lansdown.
GSK, which has about 3,000 employees in China, said its
forecast for the current year did not include any potential
impact from the coronavirus outbreak that has killed nearly 500
people in China.
"It is just really too early to say," Walmsley said on a
call with journalists.
GSK echoed rival Novartis by saying it had not
faced much disruption in the short term to its supply chain, but
was monitoring the situation and had suspended all non-critical
travel to China at least until mid-February.
The company expects 2020 adjusted profit to fall by 1% to 4%
at constant exchange rates after 2019 adjusted earnings rose 1%
to 123.9 pence per share.
Analysts currently expect a 3.8% drop in 2020 adjusted
profit, according to a consensus https://www.gsk.com/en-gb/investors/analyst-consensus/analyst-consensus
estimate compiled by the company.
GSK's sales rose 11% to 8.90 billion pounds ($11.6 billion)
in the three months ended Dec. 31, while adjusted earnings were
24.8 pence per share. Both numbers missed consensus https://www.gsk.com/en-gb/investors/analyst-consensus/analyst-consensus
forecasts.
Divestment proceeds from older products should be about 1.6
billion pounds, enough to cover the cash costs of its
restructuring programme, GSK said.
Pharmaceuticals sales in the fourth quarter fell 4% to 4.56
billion pounds, including HIV sales of 1.26 billion. Vaccines
turnover grew 21% to 1.74 billion pounds, as sales of shingles
vaccines Shingrix more than doubled.
($1 = 0.7662 pounds)
(Reporting by Pushkala Aripaka, Ankur Banerjee and Aakash
Jagadeesh Babu in Bengaluru and Ludwig Burger in Frankfurt;
Editing by Bernard Orr and Mark Potter)
