GSK plc (GSK) Q1 2026 Earnings Call

Investor webinar replay

Replay transcript excerpt

Ladies and gentlemen, a warm welcome to the GSK Q1 26 results call. I'm delighted to be joined today by Luke Miles, Nina Moyas, Deborah Waterhouse, Tony Wood and Julie Brown. And in our Q&A session, we'll be joined by David Redfern. Today's call will last approximately one hour, with the presentation taking around 30 minutes and the remaining time for your questions. Please ask only one to two questions so that everyone has a chance to participate. Before we start, please turn to slide three. This is the usual safe harbor statement. We will comment on our performance using constant exchange rates or CR unless otherwise stated. I'll now hand over to Luke. Thank you and welcome, everyone. Q1 performance was strong. Sales were up 5% to more than 7.6 billion pounds. Growth was driven by specialty medicines, which were up 14%. with vaccines also contributing particularly through strong Shingrick sales. Core operating profit grew 10% and EPS was up 9%. Cash generation was strong at 1.4 billion pounds. And our Q1 dividend declared today is 17 pence. Looking forward, we expect another year of profitable growth reflected in the guidance confirmed today. Next slide, please. In February, we set out our priorities to drive value. We've made a good start, but we've got more to do. In a minute, Nina will share progress on how we're delivering growth, including the launches of Nucala COPD, Accenture and BlendRep. We're also assessing our pipeline on an ongoing basis, the aim being to progress high potential assets more aggressively. As we identify differentiated profiles that fit an unmet need or address a gap in the market, we will then and are using scientific courage to make decisions in an accelerated way. This includes internal development as well as BD. Now we're already maki...