GSK’s crown jewels need to start sparkling

GSK needed to impress with the first results after spinning off its consumer arm, and a lift to full-year guidance was duly delivered today. Shares in the UK group have recovered strongly since early 2021, when they hit a 10-year low on concerns about the pipeline and its ability to pay a dividend. That recovery now needs to be supported by data, and the remainder of 2022 holds some big readouts. These concern several of the “crown jewels” that carry £20bn in peak sales potential, as forecast by the company last year. The RSV reveal is most important; GSK has already toplined this as positive but full details remain crucial. Elsewhere, the sellside has relatively high hopes for otilimab, which counts as GSK’s second most valuable pipeline project behind the RSV candidate, according to Evaluate Pharma. Failures with other anti-GM-CSF MAbs should be noted, however. A big expansion of depemokimab's pivotal programme was also revealed today; the long-acting anti-IL-5 MAb is a Nucala follow-on for severe asthma. Data are unlikely before late 2023, but the big investment here makes it a project to watch.