Shingles vaccine gives GSK a shot in the arm – as Haleon demerger nets £10.1bn gain

Pharma giant GSK’s pivot to research and development appears to be paying off in the early going, with sales of £29.3bn in 2022 – up some 19 per cent year on year.

Much of the growth has been driven by a significant increase in vaccine sales, with the shingles jab Shingrix contributing £3bn of the near £30bn total.

GSK’s full-years are their first since the demerger of the brand’s consumer healthcare division, now known as Haleon, which netted the group a net gain of £10.1bn.

“2022 was a landmark year for GSK delivering the step change in performance we committed to, driven by strong growth in specialty medicines and vaccines, including record sales for Shingrix,” boss Dame Emma Walmsley said this morning.

Total continuing operating proft – excluding the discontinued consumer health operations – were 6.4bn.

The pharma giant expects turnover to increase by around 6 to 8 per cent in 2023 with vaccines again leading the charge, with an expected increase of “mid teens per cent.”

However, GSK will see a hit to the bottom line as governments shift away from Covid-19 spending.

Sales of what the firm calls “Covid-19 solutions” were £2.4bn in 2022 but GSK said this morning it “does not anticipate any significant… pandemic-related sales” in teh year ahead.

The results will be seen as a seal of approval for Walmsley’s strategy, which moved the business towards a more simplified but technologically-savvy medicine, pharma and vaccines operation.

She had previously faced significant activist pressure, not least from Elliott.

GSK confirmed this morning that it had a pipeline of 69 “innovative” vaccines and speciality medicines including a potential blockbuster RSV jab – with GSK competing with Moderna to secure the market’s top spot.

Analysts gave a warm welcome to the figures and in particular a better than expected performance in Q4.

“GSK ended 2022 in a strong position with another promising quarter, with a total of £29.3B worth of sales, exceeding their expected EPS at 139.7p. Generating £7.38bn in the last quarter, GSK surpassed the expected revenue of £7.1bn, and overshot the expected EPS of 22p, finalising at 37.1p,” Zhyar Said from pharma intelligence specialist Citeline said.

“Despite the decline in sales in speciality medicines such as Xevudy, GSK recovered in sales with strong performances from Trelegy and Shingrix,” he continued.