(Reuters) – GSK on Wednesday beat fourth-quarter profit and sales forecasts helped by sales of its blockbuster shingles vaccine Shingrix.
The London-listed drugmaker, which executed a long-scripted overhaul with the spinoff of its consumer health unit last July, reported adjusted profit of 25.8 pence per share on sales of about 7.4 billion pounds ($9.11 billion).
Analysts were expecting 21.2 pence per share on sales of about 7.1 billion pounds, company-compiled consensus estimates showed.
GSK, now solely focused on vaccines and medicines, also forecast 2023 sales to rise 6% to 8% and adjusted operating profit to climb by 10% to 12%, excluding any contributions from the company’s COVID-19 solutions business, at constant exchange rates.
Shingrix generated 769 million pounds over the quarter, topping the 748 million in the GSK-compiled consensus estimates.
($1 = 0.8120 pounds)
(Reporting by Maggie Fick and Natalie Grover; editing by Jason Neely)
