GSK plc (GSK) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

For the period ending June 30, 2023

July 26, 2023 7:00 a.m. ET

Prepared Remarks

Questions and Answers

Call Participants

Prepared Remarks:

Nick Stone

Hello, everyone. Welcome to our Half Year End Q2 2023 conference call webcast investors and analysts. Presentation was sent to our distribution list by e-mail, and you can also find it on gsk.com. Please turn to Slide 2.

This is the usual Safe Harbor statement. We will comment on our performance using constant exchange rates, or CER, unless stated otherwise. As a reminder, following the Consumer Healthcare demerger in 2022 to form Haleon. We're presenting the performance and growth of continuing operations for GSK.

Please turn to Slide 3. Today's call will last approximately 1 hour and management presentation will take 35 minutes with the remaining time for your questions, [Operator Instructions].

Our speakers today are Emma Walmsley, Tony Wood, Luke Miels, Deborah Waterhouse, and Julie Brown with David Redfern joining the rest of the team for Q&A portion of the call.

Turning to Slide 4, I will now hand the call over to Emma.

Emma Walmsley

Thanks, Nick, and a very warm welcome to everyone joining us today. I'm delighted to be presenting to you all another set of excellent results for GSK. Please come to the next slide.

Sales and profits grew at double-digit levels for the quarter, our sixth consecutive quarter of strong growth. Sales were £7.2 billion, up 11%, excluding Pandemic Solutions. Adjusted operating profit was up 12% to £2.2 billion, and adjusted EPS were up GBP £0.17 to 38.8 pence. This is further evidence of the sustained step change in GSK's performance, and this momentum supports our decision to upgrade our guidance for the year.

Our performance also demonstrated delivery of the strategic choices we've made to develop the portfolio and the R&D pipeline. New products, notably in vaccines and HIV all made healthy contributions to growth and reflect the investments we've made to prioritize these parts of our business. 62% sales are now coming from Vaccines & Specialty Medicines, which we expect to provide durable and profitable growth through the decade, and new products launched since 2017 have contributed sales of £4.6 billion so far this year, adding nearly £1 billion of distributional turnover compared to 2022. Equally, our general meds business continues to perform alongside the other parts of our portfolio.

Next slide please. We are deploying capital in a financially disciplined way to invest in growth and deliver stronger returns to shareholders. We are delivering on our commitments. And as you can see from the slide, we are on track to hit all the targets we set out in 2021. As you all know, our very first priority for capital remains to invest in continued pipeline progress, and we know this is the key question for shareholders.