British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline said on Wednesday that third-quarter net profit rocketed almost ten-fold to £10.3 billion (€11.9 billion) on the blockbuster spinoff of consumer healthcare unit Haleon.
Earnings after taxation spiked in the three months to the end of September from £1.2 billion a year earlier, due to a vast gain of £9.6 billion on the Haleon demerger, GSK said in a results statement. Stripping out the spinoff, adjusted net profit still jumped 26 per cent.
Turnover leapt 18 per cent to £7.8 billion, boosted by record sales of GSK's shingles jab.
Haleon became London's biggest listing for more than a decade when it was spun off earlier this year.
GlaxoSmithKline CEO Emma Walmsley. Photo: Mandel Ngan / AFPThe major strategy shift by GSK chief executive Emma Walmsley to focus on GSK's core pharmaceuticals business comes after she faced intense activist shareholder pressure over its delays in producing COVID jabs and treatments.
GSK, which had owned 68 per cent of Haleon with Pfizer holding the remainder, retained a six per cent stake.
Haleon sells brands including Sensodyne toothpaste, pain relief drug Panadol and cold treatment Theraflu, as well as Centrum multivitamins and anti-inflammatory gel Voltaren. The unit launched in July with a stock market capitalisation of about £30 billion.
Glaxo meanwhile lifted its annual sales growth forecast on Wednesday to between eight and 10 per cent.
"GSK has delivered another quarter of excellent performance, with strong growth in specialty medicines, record sales for our shingles vaccine, Shingrix, and further improvements in adjusted operating profit," Walmsley said in the earnings release. "We are again raising our full-year guidance and expect good momentum in 2023, further strengthening our confidence in our performance outlooks."
We are again raising our full-year guidance and expect good momentum in 2023, further strengthening our confidence in our performance outlooks- GlaxoSmithKline CEO Emma Walmsley
The London-listed pharma giant is also expanding its portfolio of niche drugs.
GSK this year announced the acquisitions of US group Sierra Oncology, a specialist in medicines for rare forms of cancer, as well as US biopharmaceutical firm Affinivax.