Profits and revenues on the rise for pharma giant

L Glaxo’s 2017 turnover lifts 3% to more than £30bn l Pipeline of new products to give further shot in arm

Pharmaceuticals major Glaxosmithkline has reported rising full-year sales and profits, while pointing to a pipeline of new products that will help its performance in 2018.

The company saw turnover rise 3 per cent at constant exchange rates to £30.2 billion, while adjusted operating profit increased 5 per cent to £8.56bn.

Glaxo said its performance was helped by successful respiratory treatments and HIV products.

All three of the group’s divisions – pharmaceuticals, vaccines and consumer healthcare – posted solid sales growth. In the fourth quarter, revenue rose 4 per cent to £7.63bn, with profit 5 per cent up at £2bn.

Chief executive Emma Walmsley, who took the top job last year, said: “In 2017 GSK delivered encouraging results from across the company with sales growth in each of our three global businesses.

“With the sales momentum we anticipate from new and recent launches and focused improvements in operating performance we are increasingly confident in our ability to deliver mid to high singledigit growth in adjusted earning per share.”

But Walmsley, delivering her first set of full-year results, said forward guidance was dependent on the impact of a possible generic competition to Glaxo’s Advair asthma treatment in the US.

Should no generic competitor arrive onto the market in 2018, adjusted earnings per share was expected to grow between 4 per cent and 7 per cent. In the event of a mid-year introduction of a competitor in the US, that could fall to 3 per cent.

But Glaxo pointed to three new product launches expected to boost the firm this year. Trelegy Ellipta, which provides three medicines in a single inhaler to treat lung conditions, Juluca, the first twodrug regimen, once-daily, single pill for HIV, and Shingrix, a new vaccine for the prevention of shingles.

Glaxo also booked a £1.6bn charge related to US president Donald Trump’s tax reform but, like other big firms, will benefit in the long run.

Roger Franklin, analyst at Liberum, said: “GSK has delivered a strong set of numbers which beat at the top-line for quarter four in all the right places and delivered a bottom line beat albeit from tax and financials.”

He added: “The guidance for 2018 is encouraging and we believe it is about 1 per cent ahead of consensus expectations.” Tobacco giant Imperial Brands has said annual earnings remain on track despite a first-half hit from the collapse of UK wholesaler Palmer & Harvey, the rising pound and tighter regulation. The group, which makes Davidoff and Lambert & Butler brands, said first-half reported earnings will be knocked by a previously announced write-off of up to £160 million suffered after Palmer & Harvey went bust last November. Some 2,500 staff lost their jobs at the wholesaler.