GSK пересмотрит стратегию разработок в области ВИЧ из-за низких показателей компании в III квартале

GlaxoSmithKline Plc (GSK), the U.K.’s biggest drugmaker, pledged to cut costs and will explore a spinoff of its HIV business after reporting third-quarter earnings that beat analyst estimates.

The company will reduce expenses by 1 billion pounds ($1.6 billion) over three years, with half the savings coming in 2016, London-based Glaxo said today in a statement. Glaxo also will explore an initial public offering of a minority stake in ViiV Healthcare, the developer of HIV drugs.

The moves, along with a plan to return 4 billion pounds to shareholders next year, help ease investor concerns after a corruption probe in China and sluggish sales of respiratory drugs in the U.S. Before today, the stock had lost 13 percent this year, including reinvested dividends, and was the worst performer in the Bloomberg Europe Pharmaceutical Index. Glaxo rose 2.6 percent to 1,377 pence in London, the biggest gain in six months.

“2014 has been a difficult year, a challenging year, but it hasn’t been a strategically destabilizing year at all,” Andrew Witty, Glaxo’s chief executive officer, said on a conference call. “I’m confident about the strategy of the group.”