With Luke Miels in place as chief executive, GSK Plc is taking steps to simplify operations and identify new opportunities in its late-stage pipeline. A portfolio review is underway to identify 50 promising assets that could be the focus of drug development in the coming years. Mr Miels became CEO on 1 January, succeeding Emma Walmsley. He had previously been the company’s chief commercial officer having joined GSK in 2017. Speaking to journalists on 29 April, he said GSK is “matching our best people and resources to the opportunities we have in front of us and are employing AI to accelerate this.”
His remarks followed the release of the company’s first quarter results which showed group turnover of £7.6 billion, up by 2% from a year earlier at actual exchange rates, and by 5% at constant rates. The key drivers of sales were specialty medicines, a broad category which includes treatments for respiratory, immunology and inflammatory diseases as well as cancer drugs and HIV medicines. Vaccines contributed £2.1 billion to the total, and general medicines, £2.3 billion. General medicines include primary care treatments for respiratory conditions.
GSK is forecasting an increase in turnover this year of 3% to 5% at constant exchange rates and has set a target of more than £40 billion for 2031. In the current year, sales of specialty medicines are expected to increase. However turnover of vaccines and general medicines is expected to be stable or show a small decline.
A portfolio review is therefore underway. “We have just gone through a very granular exercise looking at over 50 different programmes that we could accelerate [and/or] expand, within the existing portfolio, which gives you a sense off the amount of substrate we have in the late-stage pipeline,” Mr Miels said. The results of this review should be available in the second quarter. At the same time spending on research and development is expected to grow ahead of sales.
In the first quarter, the company allocated £1.7 billion to R&D, an increase of 19% from a year earlier, and 22.2% of sales. Operating profit, on an IFRS basis, was £2.29 billion, for an increase of 9% and 30.1% of sales.
GSK received regulatory approvals for five products across multiple geographies in the first quarter. These include Exdensur for severe asthma in the EU and China; Nucala for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in the EU; and Blenrep for multiple myeloma in China. The company has also submitted regulatory applications in the US, EU, Japan and China for bepirovirsen, an antisense oligonucleotide for chronic hepatitis B.
Among the company’s newest early clinical products is mocertatug rezetecan, an antibody-drug conjugate in-licensed from Hansoh Pharma for endometrial and ovarian cancers. GSK is to start five Phase 3 trials for the drug this year, based on promising Phase 1 data.
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