LONDON (AFP) – British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline said on Wednesday that net profit rose 14 percent to £1.525 billion (1.72 billion euros, $2.5 billion) in the first quarter, despite a slump in product sales.
Savings from a major cost-cutting programme and asset disposals helped to offset a 10-percent drop in sales to £6.585 billion in the three months to March 31, compared with the first quarter of 2010, GSK said in a statement.
GSK was rocked in September when the EU medicines regulator decided to pull its former diabetes product Avandia off the shelves over fears that it increased the risk of heart attack and strokes.
Regulators also restricted its availability in the United States.
Meanwhile sales of GSK's herpes treatment Valtrex have been hit by generic competition.
"Reported (first quarter) sales were down 10 percent, reflecting a £1 billion reduction in sales of pandemic products, Avandia and Valtrex versus a year ago," chief executive Andrew Witty said in Wednesday's results statement.
"This impact is set to decline going forward and we expect underlying sales growth to translate into sustainable reported growth in 2012."
Shrugging off the sales slump, Witty said that the first quarter was "positive on many fronts, with good progress made in delivery of our strategy to improve long-term financial performance".
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
GlaxoSmithKline Q1 profit jumps despite sales fall - Yahoo! News
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