British pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline PLC on Wednesday posted an increase in net profit and sales for the final quarter of 2021.
The company said net profit was 749 million pounds ($1.01 billion) for the fourth quarter, up from GBP677 million for the same period the previous year, on sales that grew to GBP9.53 billion from GBP8.74 billion.
While sales beat expectations, net profit came short of a company-provided consensus, which saw the metric at GBP1.19 billion.
Earnings per share grew to 14.7 pence from 13.6 pence, while adjusted earnings per share--a closely-watched metric that strips off some one-off items--came to 25.6 pence, beating consensus expectations of 23.8 pence.
The company declared a dividend of 23 pence for the fourth quarter and of 80 pence for 2021, in line with what the company had previously said.
Sales in the pharmaceuticals business grew on year in the fourth quarter, driven by growth in the new and specialty products section, Glaxo said.
Vaccine sales, however, took a hit from lower meningitis and shingles shot sales, coming in 7% lower than in the previous year, the company said.
Turnover in the consumer healthcare business rose in the quarter, the company said.
Glaxo said it expects to deliver sales growth in 2022 of between 5% to 7% at constant exchange rates. Adjusted operating profit is expected to grow between 12% and 14% at constant exchange rates during the year, including some anticipated benefit in royalty income from the Gilead settlement.
Glaxo's vaccines business, which includes growth-driving shingles jab Shingrix, is expected to see sales growth in a low-teens percentage at constant exchange rates for the year.
However, the company warned that governments' prioritization of Covid-19 vaccination programs as well as measures to curb the pandemic are going to continue disrupting adult vaccinations, and that it expects the impact of this to be felt in the first half of the year. It still expects Shingrix to deliver double-digit growth with strong demand in both existing and new markets, Glaxo said.
Glaxo said it expects its Covid-19 solutions business to contribute to 2022 sales in a similar proportion to what it did in 2021. However, it foresees a substantially reduced profit contribution from the business, due to the increased sales proportion of lower-margin Covid-19 drug Xevudy.
Glaxo said it continues to expect the demerger of its consumer healthcare business to happen in mid-2022, and that it will give more information on this during its capital markets day on Feb 28.
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