GlaxoSmithKline, plc (GSK) posted better performance during the third quarter ended September 2006 despite stiff generic competition to Lamictal, Imigran and Sofran. The company's net profit after taxation improved by 19 per cent to British Pound 1426 million from Pound 1253 million in the corresponding period of last year. Its turnover touched to Pound 5642 million as against Pound 5471 million, a growth of 7 per cent. The earnings per share for the quarter improved to 24.4 pence from 21.1 pence in the similar period of last year. The company declared interim dividend of 12 pence per share.

Commenting on the performance and outlook, JP Garnier, CEO, said, "GSK's strong performance this year continues, with EPS growth of 21 per cent this quarter. This has enabled us to raise our earnings guidance and increase our expected dividend for the year. We have also announced today our intention to start a new Pound 6 billion share buy-back programme - doubling our current annual repurchases to Pound 2 billion. In terms of he pipeline, we recently completed filings for Tykerb, our new breast cancer treatment, and reached the required number of phase III events to enable us to file Cervarix in the USA, now expected by April 2007. We also received US FDA approvals for two significant future products - Coreg CR and FluLaval."

GSK's total pharmaceutical sales increased by 7 per cent to Pound 4,876 million from Pound 4709 million in the similar period of last year. Its pharmaceuticals sales in US improved by 14 per cent to Pound 2.6 billion and that in Europe were level at Pound 1.3 billion. Total sales of Seretide/Advair, for asthma and COPD, rose by 14 per cent to Pound 813 million. The Avandia family of products, for the treatment of type 2 diabetes, continues to perform well with sales up by 11 per cent to Pound 378 million in the quarter. The sales of vaccines improved by 5 per cent to Pound 412 million.

For the first nine months of 2006, GSK's net profit moved up by 16 per cent to Pound 4,293 million from Pound 3665 million. Its turnover for the nine months improved by 9 per cent to Pound 17,266 million from Pound 15,763 million in the corresponding period of last year.