GSK Shares Slide After Vaccine Sales Disappoint

By Adria Calatayud

GSK shares fell after the U.K. drugmaker reported lower-than-expected sales for its shingles vaccine Shingrix, the company's bestselling product, mainly due to weakness in China.

Shares in GSK were down 7% in European midday trading Wednesday, wiping out gains earlier in the year. If maintained until close, this would be the stock's biggest one-day drop since June 2024, according to FactSet data.

The company reported an increase in third-quarter sales overall, boosted by its specialty-medicines segment, but its vaccines business fell short of analysts' expectations due to weakness in key products like Shingrix and Arexvy, a shot for respiratory syncytial virus.

GSK earlier this year laid out plans to cut costs over the coming years in a bid to free up resources to invest in bringing its pipeline of new medicines to market faster, part of a plan to revive its fortunes following the appointment of Luke Miels as chief executive.

Miels said during a call with reporters that he wanted to redirect funds to the company's late-stage pipeline assets.

Quarterly sales of Shingrix came in at 780 million pounds ($1.04 billion), down 5% compared with the year-earlier period when excluding the effects of currency movements. Analysts had forecast 844 million pounds, according to consensus compiled by the company.

GSK attributed the decline to lower sales in international markets outside the U.S. and Europe, primarily China, and said this was partly offset by U.S. pricing and stockpiling.

Arexvy sales shrank by more than a fifth to 195 million pounds, missing analysts' expectations of 231 million pounds.

A jump in sales of specialty medicines allowed GSK to offset a declining vaccines revenue and a flat performance in its general medicines segment.

The group's third-quarter turnover was 8.89 billion pounds, up 4% compared with the year-earlier period. Analysts had forecast GSK's quarterly turnover at 8.84 billion pounds, according to consensus estimates provided by the company.

Pretax profit for the quarter was 1.94 billion pounds compared with 2.46 billon pounds a year before. Net profit dropped to 1.54 billion pounds from 2.01 billion pounds.

The results included restructuring charges of 328 million pounds relating to the group's turnaround program, it said.

Excluding exceptional items and currency effects, core operating profit climbed 5% to 3.08 billion pounds. Analysts had forecast the metric at 2.93 billion pounds, according to the company-compiled consensus.

The company reaffirmed its full-year outlook.

Write to Adria Calatayud at adria.calatayud@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 28, 2026 08:39 ET (12:39 GMT)