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 Walmsley, who took over in April, said GSK would allocate capital to
priority areas including respiratory and HIV and infectious
diseases, and two potential areas of oncology and immuno-inflammation.
More than 30 pre-clinical and clinical programs will be stopped,
partnered or divested, and the group is considering options for its
Rare Diseases unit after a strategic review.
"Q2 was another quarter of progress for GSK," Walmsley said. "Our
priority for the second half of the year is to maintain this
momentum and prepare for the successful execution of several
important near-term launches in Respiratory, Vaccines and HIV."
The announcement came as Britain's biggest drugmaker reported a 12
percent rise in adjusted earnings per share in sterling terms to
27.2 pence on sales up 12 percent at 7.32 billion pounds ($9.53
billion).
Analysts, on average, had forecast EPS of 26.2 pence and sales of
7.26 billion pounds, according to Thomson Reuters data.
The group reiterated its outlook for 2020, first given in 2015,
forecasting sales growth of low-to-mid single digits and adjusted
earnings of mid-to-high single digits on a constant currency basis.
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It will extend a cost-cutting program to deliver an additional 1
billion pounds of annual cost savings by 2020.
“A most impressive start by Emma Walmsley, as she demonstrates her
understanding of the key issues and being unafraid of taking
unpopular decisions,” said Trinity Delta analyst Mick Cooper.
Its shares drifted lower after the results and were flat at 1028
GMT.
(Reporting by Ben Hirschler and Kate Holton, editing by Louise
Heavens and Adrian Croft)
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