Specialty meds lift GSK's outlook in Walmsley's swan song

Emma Walmsley's last set of financial results as GSK's chief executive has gone swimmingly, with better-than-expected sales growth that has allowed the company to raise its full-year forecasts.

Group revenues in the third quarter came in at £8.55 billion ($11.3 billion), up 7% on the same period of 2024, with oncology the star performer, rising 39% to £500 million, with solid gains for the HIV and respiratory/immunology businesses – the other key components of its specialty medicines business – which grew 16% to £3.41 billion.

The news on vaccines was not so good, as declining sales of shingles shot Shingrix in the US and China pegged back growth to 2%, coming in at £2.68 billion. The falls are thought to have resulted from a smaller pool of unvaccinated potential recipients in the two countries, as well as an increasingly vaccine-sceptical US operating environment.

There was a welcome bounce-back for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine Arexvy, however, which rose 36% to £300 million in the quarter, after sales fell sharply last year due to changes in immunisation recommendations in the US.

Walmsley said GSK had a "strong quarter" that is "positioning us well for 2026 and achieving our longer-term growth outlooks." She is due to stand down as GSK's CEO at the end of the year, after eight years at the helm, and will be replaced by current chief commercial officer Luke Miels.

The wait goes on to gauge the rollout of would-be blockbuster multiple myeloma therapy Blenrep (belantamab mafodotin), following its return to the market earlier this year and a narrower-than-hoped label approved in the US last week. However, Walmsley highlighted the drug and 15 other pipeline opportunities that should launch before 2031 as evidence of a transformation of GSK's leadership team under her tenure.

"We have delivered a step-change in operating performance, new prospects for growth, and a clear pathway for scaling patient impact and sustained shareholder value," she said.

On its full-year outlook, GSK now expects turnover growth of 6% to 7%, up from a previous prediction of 3% to 5%.

Walmsley pointed to the potential of various drugs in the late-stage R&D pipeline, including B7-H3-targeting antibody-drug conjugate GSK'227 for small cell lung cancer, FGF21 analogue efimosfermin for metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH), long-acting IL-5 inhibitor depemokimab for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and KIT inhibitor GSK'981 (IDRx-42) for gastrointestinal stromal tumours (GIST).

There are also some withdrawn programmes to report from GSK's R&D presentation (PDF), namely the end of anti-TIM-3 antibody cobolimab after it failed a phase 3 trial in lung cancer in July, and five phase 2 candidates: TG2 inhibitor GSK3915393 for pulmonary fibrosis; anti-PVRIG antibody GSK4381562 and anti-CD96 antibody nelistotug, both being developed for cancer; CMV vaccine GSK3993129; and meningitis shot GSK4023393.