May 1 (Reuters) - GSK raised its full-year profit forecast on Wednesday on strong demand for vaccines and specialty medicines though noted sales growth would slow in the second half.
CEO Emma Walmsley's strategy has focussed on vaccines and infectious diseases and a shift in its HIV focus to long-acting treatment and prevention therapies. The strategy has paid off as the company gears up for 12 launches from 2025.
The London-listed drugmaker said it expects a rise of 8% to 10% in annual adjusted earnings per share, up from the 6%-9% growth previously forecast. It expects a rise in 2024 sales in the upper end of its 5% to 7% forecast range.
Sales of recent launched products such as respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine Arexvy and bone marrow cancer therapy Ojjaara have been strong since the start of 2024, while asthma drug Trelegy has also performed better than expected, GSK said.
It also attributed its increased forecast to a successful royalty dispute appeal for ovary cancer drug Zejula in the first quarter.
The British company reported a first-quarter profit of 43.1 pence per share on sales of 7.36 billion pounds ($9.18 billion) for the first quarter, beating the profit of 37.3 pence on sales of 7.07 billion forecast by analysts, a company-compiled consensus showed.
GSK noted, however, that sales growth would be higher in the first half, it said.
"In particular, second half 2024, compared to the same period in the prior year, is expected to be influenced by the 2023 launch dynamics and initial channel inventory build attributable to Arexvy. In addition, we expect the majority of Shingrix sales in China in to be in the first half," GSK said in a statement.
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