GlaxoSmithKline Raises Guidance After 3Q Profit Rise -- Update
30 Ottobre 2019 - 02:56PM
Dow Jones News
--Glaxo revises guidance to flat on year adjusted EPS
performance
--Performance, guidance upgrade supported by vaccines sales
beat, newer drugs
--Advair sales fall following launch of generic competitor from
Mylan
By Denise Roland and Carlo Martuscelli
GlaxoSmithKline PLC (GSK.LN) raised its full-year guidance as
profits rose in the third quarter despite heavy investment in
research and new competition for its top-selling inhaler
Advair.
The British drug maker said adjusted earnings per share, a
closely watched metric, rose 9% to 38.6 pence (49.02 cents), or 1%
at constant currencies, in the three months to Sept 30. Net profit
rose 9% to GBP1.6 billion.
For the full year, Glaxo now expects adjusted EPS to be flat at
constant exchange rates, having previously said it expected a fall
of 3% to 5%.
Glaxo attributed the strong performance, and the upgrade, to
better-than-expected sales of some vaccines and newer drugs, as
well as a tax boost.
Those factors overcame two big drags on profits.
The company has increased its spending on research as Chief
Executive Emma Walmsley works to revitalize Glaxo's pipeline of
branded prescription drugs. At the same time, Glaxo is for the
first time facing low-cost competition for its best-selling inhaler
Advair, which treats asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary
disease.
Advair lost patent protection in 2010 but went unchallenged for
nearly a decade due to the difficulties of making a generic version
of an inhalable drug. That changed earlier this year, when Mylan NV
(MYL) started selling a cut-price version.
The new competition hit Advair sales hard in the third quarter.
U.S. revenue for the treatment fell 62% to GBP117 million, dragging
global revenue for the product down 32% to GBP418 million.
Despite that, Glaxo's total revenue climbed 16% to GBP9.4
billion in the third quarter, thanks to strong sales of newer HIV
drugs and the vaccine Shingrix.
The addition of products from Pfizer Inc.'s (PFE) consumer
health-care business, which started contributing to sales in
August, also boosted revenue. Glaxo and Pfizer announced a deal to
combine their consumer health units in December last year and the
deal closed in August.
Write to Denise Roland at denise.roland@wsj.com and Carlo
Martuscelli at carlo.martuscelli@dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 30, 2019 09:41 ET (13:41 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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