GSK fourth-quarter earnings beat expectations amid strong demand for RSV vaccine

Investing.com -- London-listed shares in GSK (LON:GSK) rose on Wednesday after the British drugmaker posted better-than-anticipated fourth-quarter results and a full-year financial forecast that topped estimates.

Boosting the results was strong demand for Arexvy, a respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine for older adults that GSK launched in the U.S. last year. Sales of the jab, which has also been approved for use in Europe, Japan and other countries, came in at 1.24 billion pounds for the year ended on Dec. 31.

The returns from Arexvy helped drive profit per-share in the fourth quarter up to 28.9 pence, while revenue grew to 8.05 billion pounds. Analysts had seen the figures at 28.63 pence and 7.29 billion pounds, respectively, according to LSEG data cited by Reuters.

Meanwhile, GSK guided for an uptick of 6% to 9% in annual adjusted income per share on sales expansion of 5% to 7%, both beating expectations in a company-supplied poll referenced by Reuters.

"We are now planning for at least 12 major launches from 2025, with new vaccines and specialty medicines for infectious diseases, HIV, respiratory and oncology. As a result of this progress and momentum, we expect to deliver another year of meaningful sales and earnings growth in 2024," said Chief Executive Officer Emma Walmsley in a statement.