Strong third quarter sales drive GSK forward

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has announced its financial results for the third quarter. Sales were up 13% to £4.994bn (US$7.24bn), with a trading profit of £1.416bn (US$2.053bn). All regions performed strongly with pharmaceutical sector sales growth of 14% (to £2.2bn) in the US, 8% (to £1.1bn) in Europe and 18% (to £0.9bn) for the rest of the world.

All regions benefited from continued growth in the key therapy areas of central nervous system (CNS), respiratory and anti-virals. There were also strong performances by the company's new asthma treatment drug, Seretide/Advair, and Avandia, which has seen increasing acceptance in the oral diabetes market.

GSK's respiratory products, Seretide/Advair, serevent and Flicotide/Flovent grew 53% overall to more than £600m, with at least 2m prescriptions having been issued for Seretide/Advair in the US since its launch in April. These three key products grew 74% in the US, 37% in the rest of the world and 35% in Europe.

Total HIV sales were up 16% to £340m, with US sales increasing by 11% to £203m, driven by a high demand for Trizivir, the new HIV triple combination product.

A healthy performance from Avandia drove metabolic and gastro-intestinal sales up by 24% to £400m, of which £226m came from sales of Avandia alone.

CNS continued its growth with sales of £983m. Total Seroxat/Paxil sales were in line with last year, and there was strong growth in Europe and the rest of the world, which offset a 10% fall in sales in the US.

Commenting on the company's performance, ceo Jean-Pierre Garnier said: 'GSK had a strong third quarter, delivering sustained growth across all regions. I am especially pleased to see the way our new products continue to help drive this growth.'

Looking to the future, GSK revealed that a complete review and prioritisation of its product development portfolio showed that the company has 113 projects in clinical development, which includes 50 nces, 22 new vaccines and 41 line extensions.