GLAXF - GSK plc (GSK) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

2024-05-04 00:00:06 ET

GSK plc (GSK)

Q1 2024 Earnings Conference Call

May 01, 2024 03:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Nick Stone - Head of Investor Relations

Emma Walmsley - Chief Executive Officer

Luke Miels - Chief Commercial Officer

Deborah Waterhouse - Chief Executive Officer, ViiV Healthcare

Julie Brown - Chief Financial Officer

Tony Wood - Chief Scientific Officer

Conference Call Participants

Mark Purcell - Morgan Stanley

Kerry Holford - Joh. Berenberg, Gossler & Co.

Graham Parry - Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Jo Walton - UBS

Stephen Scala - TD Cowen

Simon Baker - Redburn Atlantic

James Gordon - JPMorgan

Emily Field - Barclays Bank PLC

Richard Parkes - BNP Paribas

Peter Verdult - Citigroup Inc.

Peter Welford - Jefferies LLC

Timothy Anderson - Wolfe Research, LLC

Presentation

Nick Stone

Hello everyone. Welcome to today’s call and webcast. The presentation was sent to our distribution list by email, 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, adjusted results are now referred to as core, like many European pharmaceutical peers.

Please turn to Slide 3. Today’s call will last approximately one hour, with the presentation taking around 25 minutes and the remaining time for your questions. Today, our speakers are Emma Walmsley, Luke Miels, Deborah Waterhouse and Julie Brown, with Tony Wood and David Redfern joining for Q&A. Please ask one to two questions so that everyone has a chance to participate.

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

Emma Walmsley

Thanks, Nick, and welcome to everybody joining us today. I’m delighted to be presenting to you all with another set of excellent quarterly results for GSK.

Please turn to the next slide. We have had a very strong start to the year. Sales and profits grew double digits for the quarter, with sales up 13% to £7.4 billion, core operating profit up 35% to £2.4 billion, and core earnings per share up 37% to £43.1 all excluding COVID solutions. This excellent performance reflects our continued focus on execution, some benefit from phasing in the quarter, and strong delivery of our recent launches. It also demonstrates the great momentum we continue to see across the business.

Demand for our innovative vaccines and specialty medicines was clear, with strong growth across new products. Our very good sales performance was also underpinned by good cost control. Julie will take you through the details on this in a moment, but I particularly want to highlight our SG&A performance, which was delivered alongside increased investment in R&D demonstrating continued delivery of effective operating leverage and margin improvement. These benefits are also delivering improved cash flow providing funds for investment and returns to shareholders. Our dividend for the quarter was £15.

For the full-year, we are upgrading our guidance and looking forward to delivering another year of meaningful growth for shareholders. Next slide, please. Alongside our excellent financial performance, we have seen strong pipeline progress across the therapy areas, with Phase III data readouts for four medicines.

For Gepotidacin, further pivotal data that supports regulatory submission of this new antibiotic. For Cabenuva, further evidence of superior efficacy. For Jemperli, potential broader use of this medicine to treat endometrial cancer. And lastly, encouraging clinical data supporting use of Blenrep for the treatment of multiple myeloma. These...

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