GSK (LON: GSK), the UK-headquartered biopharma group focused on vaccines, specialty medicines and general medicines, saw its shares jump more than 6% earlier today after second-quarter core earnings beat forecasts and chief executive Luke Miels paired the results with a fresh cost-savings drive and a new Cambridge research hub.
The shares traded as high as 2,096p in early trade, up from Monday’s close of 1,961p, a move of over 6%.
Core operating profit rose 7% at constant exchange rates to £2.8bn in the quarter, while core earnings per share climbed 9% to 50.5p, well ahead of analyst expectations of around 47.1p. Alongside the core results, GSK unveiled a three-year “Accelerate Growth” programme targeting £1.9bn of annual savings by 2029, at a cost of £2.4bn, explicitly to fund reinvestment in its late-stage drug pipeline. A separate announcement the same morning confirmed a new £400m, 300,000 sq ft flagship R&D centre on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, replacing the Stevenage site and relocating more than 1,000 scientists.
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The beat was driven by Specialty Medicines, where sales rose 14% to £3.78bn, and Vaccines, up 8% to £2.28bn, while General Medicines sales fell 9% to £2.34bn. Miels said the savings programme would help “simplify the organisation and reallocate capital and resources” to fund the pipeline as GSK heads into the 2028 to 2030 window when patents on its HIV drug dolutegravir begin to lapse. GSK still guided full-year core EPS growth to the lower half of its 7-9% range, a caveat on how far today’s re-rating can run.
GSK declared a second-quarter dividend of 17p, with 70p expected for the full year, and confirmed it had completed its previously announced £2bn share buyback in the quarter.