Oct 30 (Reuters) - GSK lowered its 2024 vaccine sales forecast for the second time this year on Wednesday, hit by weak demand for its respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and shingles vaccines.
The British drugmaker now expects 2024 vaccine sales to decrease by low-single digit percentage in turnover. It had previously expected the business to grow by a low to mid-single digit percentage.
The company reported core earnings per share of 49.7 pence on sales of 8.01 billion pounds ($10.41 billion) for the third quarter ended Sept. 30, compared with an EPS of 43.6 pence on sales of about 8 billion pounds in a company-compiled consensus of analyst estimates.
It kept full-year total sales and earnings forecasts unchanged.
"Strong growth in specialty medicines helped to offset lower vaccine sales and reflected successful new product launches in oncology and HIV," GSK CEO Emma Walmsley said in a statement.
Earlier this month, GSK reached a $2.2 billion settlement to end most of its lawsuits in the United States, claiming that its discontinued version of the heartburn drug Zantac caused cancer.
It took a 1.8 billion pound charge relating to the settlement in the quarter.
($1 = 0.7691 pounds)
