Pharmaceutical outfit GSK (GSK) delivered a string of positive trading updates in 2024 and ended the year raising sales guidance for 2025 and nudging up its 2031 sales target to more than £40 billion as well as announcing a £2 billion share buyback, its first in over a decade.

At the full year results on 5 February the company said it expects revenue growth of between 3% and 5% while core operating profit and EPS (earnings per share) are anticipated to grow between 6% and 8% in 2025.

Significant progress in late-stage clinical trials over the last 12-months and ‘multiple’ drug launch opportunities from 2025, prompted the company to increase its 2031 sales target to £40 billion from £38 billion.

Ordinarily investors might have expected the positive tone to continue when GSK releases first-quarter results on 30 April.

However, president Donald Trump has since muddied the waters after announcing plans to impose tariffs on the pharmaceutical industry, which may result in some companies removing forward guidance.

When asked about tariffs chief executive Emma Walmsley told Bloomberg she is hoping for the best but positioning for the worst.

Elaborating, Walmsley said: ‘One of the things that perhaps is underestimated for GSK is that when we went through the separation and the creation of Haleon (HLN), we used that to reset our global supply chain for meaningfully more resilience. That includes dual sourcing in all circumstances.’

The chief executive also made the point that GSK does not manufacture in China, which means there is no direct impact from the China-US trade war. ‘Perhaps you could even argue there may be opportunity as a British-based but global company for us,’ suggested Walmsley. 

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