GSK Raises Full-Year Profit Forecast on Strong Demand for Vaccines and HIV Drugs

By Eva Mathews and Maggie Fick

May 1 (Reuters) – GSK raised its full-year profit forecast on Wednesday due to strong demand for its common respiratory vaccine and specialty HIV drugs, although it expects sales growth to slow in the second half.

CEO Emma Walmsley’s strategy has focused on vaccines, cancer and infectious diseases, as well as the company’s shift in HIV management towards long-acting treatments and preventative therapies. The strategy has paid off, as GSK prepares for 12 launches starting in 2025.

The London-listed drugmaker said it expected an 8% to 10% rise in adjusted annual earnings per share, compared with growth of 6% to 9% previously expected. It expects sales to grow in 2024 at the high end of the 5% to 7% forecast range.

Sales of recently launched products such as respiratory syncytial virus vaccine Arexvy and bone marrow cancer treatment Ojjaara have remained strong since the start of 2024, while the asthma drug Trelegy has also performed better than expected, according to GSK.

Arexvy has dominated the respiratory syncytial virus vaccine market in the US since its launch last year, outselling rival Pfizer’s vaccine to reach a two-thirds market share in the first quarter. Respiratory syncytial virus, which often causes cold-like symptoms, is a leading cause of pneumonia in young children and older adults.

Walmsley told reporters the company hoped to roll out the vaccine to people ages 50 to 59 before the start of the upcoming respiratory syncytial virus season, which affects about 15 million Americans. which is in danger.

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GSK shares have risen more than 25% since its respiratory syncytial virus vaccine was launched in the United States in mid-August 2023. Shares in the FTSE 100 group rose 1.8% to 1,703 pence at 0950 GMT.

In the first quarter, it posted a profit of 43.1 cents per share on sales of 7.36 billion pounds ($9.18 billion), beating analysts’ forecasts for a profit of 37.3 cents and sales of 7,070 million pounds .

(1 US dollar = 0.8020 pounds)

(Reporting by Eva Mathews in Bengaluru and Maggie Fick in London; additional reporting by Lucy Raitano; editing by Subhranshu Sahu, Tomasz Janowski and Elaine Hardcastle; Spanish editing by Benjamin Mejias Valencia)