London, March 6, 2026, 09:20 GMT
- GSK repurchased 650,000 shares on March 5, which are set to be held in treasury.
- The drugmaker rolled out its Annual Report 2025, adding that AGM materials are set to come later this month.
- CEO Luke Miels is looking ahead to 2026, saying he expects “another year of profitable growth.”
GSK picked up 650,000 shares on Thursday for its buyback, paying prices from 2,072 pence up to 2,135 pence apiece. Those shares are headed for treasury, according to the company. (Source: https://newsfile.refinitiv.com/getnewsfile…)
GSK’s acquisition comes as the company works to advance its pipeline and stick to its shareholder-returns roadmap under new CEO Luke Miels, who stepped in at the end of December, following Emma Walmsley’s departure.
Buybacks can push up earnings per share simply by cutting the number of shares, regardless of any movement in actual profits. At GSK, there’s another angle: investors get clearer visibility into how much cash is flowing to acquisitions instead of coming back to them.
The company, in a separate filing Thursday, confirmed it has released its Annual Report for the year ended Dec. 31, 2025, and submitted the document to the UK regulator’s National Storage Mechanism. According to the statement, hard copies of the report and the 2026 annual general meeting notice are set to go out “on or around” March 25. (Source: https://www.investegate.co.uk/announcement…)
GSK posted 2025 turnover of £32.7 billion in its annual report, alongside a core operating profit figure of £9.8 billion. The company uses these “core” numbers as adjusted metrics that exclude certain items under IFRS accounting rules. (Source: https://www.gsk.com/en-gb/investors/financ…)
Miels, in his CEO statement, reported a 7% bump in 2025 sales to “more than £32 billion,” adding he sees that momentum sticking around this year. “Looking ahead to 2026, we expect momentum to continue with another year of profitable growth,” he wrote. (Source: https://www.gsk.com/media/wouhyceu/ceos-st…)
Chair Jonathan Symonds announced the leadership handover, noting that Walmsley “stepped down as CEO at the end of December,” passing the reins to Miels, who had been GSK’s chief commercial officer. “The priority now is delivery and overall operational execution,” Symonds said. (Source: https://www.gsk.com/media/0sna15sh/chairs-…)
GSK’s latest buyback brings the total repurchased since Feb. 17 up to 6.466 million shares, the company said Friday. Following this newest purchase, GSK holds 246.4 million shares in treasury—making up 6.05% of voting rights. That leaves 4.07 billion shares outstanding, not counting treasury stock.
Miels has outlined three priorities for 2026—he’s looking to drive launches like Exdensur for asthma and Blenrep for multiple myeloma, speed up late-stage programs like the oncology antibody-drug conjugates, and step up business development when there’s “a clear pathway to value creation.” He pointed to IDRx for 2025, and RAPT Therapeutics as the latest examples.
Timing is a concern here. Miels pointed out that to hit the company’s 2031 sales goal, it has to “address the loss of dolutegravir exclusivity.” Speeding up R&D, he said, represents the “biggest opportunity” for value creation—though drug development comes with uncertainty and a hefty price tag. And don’t forget, buybacks are fighting for those same dollars.
