GSK expects softer 2026 sales growth as new CEO Miels prepares change in course

Feb 4 (Reuters) - GSK connected Wednesday forecast slower income maturation successful 2026 but the British drugmaker kept its semipermanent extremity arsenic it expanded its pipeline of treatments to antagonistic ​looming patent expiries for its top-selling HIV drugs.

While the archetypal outlook by caller CEO Luke Miels ‌laid bare the situation helium faces arsenic helium attempts to present commercially from a probe ramp-up, it did not deter GSK ‌from backing its ambitious income people of much than 40 cardinal pounds ($55 billion) by 2031.

GSK's shares, which initially fell astir 1% successful aboriginal trading, roseate arsenic overmuch arsenic 2.3% to 1,990 pence by 0848 GMT to their highest successful implicit 24 years.

MIELS TO NAVIGATE PATENT EXPIRIES, TARIFFS

Investors are intimately watching however Miels, who took ⁠over from Emma Walmsley astatine the commencement ‌of the year, volition steer GSK arsenic it navigates U.S. tariffs and argumentation challenges and arsenic patents for top-selling drugs successful its HIV concern expire successful 2028.

The ‍current twelvemonth "will beryllium a cardinal twelvemonth of execution and operational delivery," Miels said.

The institution reported halfway net per stock of 25.5 pence for the 3 months ended December 31, aft income roseate 8% to 8.62 cardinal pounds, beating expectations.

GSK ​has staged a stronger share-price betterment than respective European peers aft a turbulent 2025 amid threats ‌of tariffs and cause pricing pressures from the U.S. government.

Gains person been helped by Miels' appointment, beardown net momentum and maturation of its specialty medicines business. Shares surged astir 36% successful 2025, outperforming gains successful the broader FTSE-100 index.

SALES TO GROW MORE SLOWLY THAN IN 2025

GSK expects gross to turn 3% to 5% this year, astatine changeless currency rates, aft it roseate 7% successful 2025 and topped expectations. Barclays analysts ⁠said the forecast was somewhat beneath consensus, chiefly owed to ​foreign speech pressure.

New launches are cardinal for GSK to prolong ​growth. Last month, GSK made a $2.2 cardinal connection for RAPT Therapeutics for an experimental nutrient allergy drug. It besides won 5 regulatory approvals past twelvemonth for caller treatments.

But uncertainty ‍over GSK's vaccine business, ⁠especially successful the U.S., is apt to spill implicit into 2026, aft Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. upended respective policies.

GSK expects 2026 income from its vaccines concern and wide medicines portion ⁠to diminution by a low-single-digit percent oregon stay "stable." Its specialty medicines business, though, is expected to study low-double-digit growth.

($1 = 0.7292 pounds)

(Reporting ‌by Sri Hari N S, Pushkala Aripaka successful Bengaluru, and Bhanvi Satija successful London; ‌Editing by Sonia Cheema, Thomas Derpinghaus and Bernadette Baum)