Pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has lifted its long-term sales guidance as it hailed a strong drug pipeline.
It came as the boss of the London-listed firm cheered an “excellent” performance in 2024.
The company revealed that turnover grew by 3% to £31.4 billion for the year, compared with 2023.
It was buoyed by a 19% rise in sales of speciality medicines, with a 13% increase for HIV treatments and 98% increase for oncology drugs.
Meanwhile, vaccine sales slipped by 4% for the year, driven by a sharp drop for its Arexvy lung disease treatment.
Operating profits dropped by 40% to £4 billion due to a £1.8 billion settlement following lawsuits linked to its former heartburn drug Zantac.
GSK said it expects core operating profits to rise by between 6% and 8% this year, with turnover said to lift by between 3% and 5%.
It said it expects further growth to be boosted by its strong pipeline of new drugs, with 71 specialty medicines and vaccines now in clinical development.
As a result, the company said it is targeting total sales of more than £40 billion by 2031, hiking its previous target of more than £38 billion.
Emma Walmsley, chief executive of GSK, said: “GSK delivered another year of excellent performance in 2024, with strong sales and core profit growth driven by accelerating momentum of our specialty medicines portfolio.
“Our outperformance and stronger balance sheet support these investments and others planned in R&D, as well as the opportunity to enhance shareholder returns through our progressive dividend and the share buyback programme which we have set out today.”
On Wednesday, the firm confirmed that it shareholders were receiving a 61p per share dividend for last year, with this on track to rise to 64p per share for 2025.
It will also hand out a further £2 billion to shareholders as part of a buyback programme over the next 18 months.
