GSK beats third-quarter forecasts on strong Shingrix sales, nudges up guidance

LONDON (Reuters) - Strong demand for a new shingles vaccine Shingrix helped pharmaceutical firm GlaxoSmithKline to post a better-than-expected 14 percent rise in third-quarter earnings and to nudge its outlook higher.

It shares rose 3 percent on the news.

The British company reported sales of 8.09 billion pounds ($10.33 billion) and adjusted earnings per share of 35.5 pence, beating consensus forecast of 8.02 billion pounds and 33.3 pence. Earnings per share rose 14 percent on a constant exchange rate basis.

It narrowed its forecast for full-year adjusted EPS growth to 8-10 percent, from a former 7-10 percent, whether or not a generic competitor to Advair is launched in the United States.

The group enjoyed a particularly strong performance from Shingrix, and said it now expects sales for the drug to reach 700 to 750 million pounds in full-year 2018, up 100 million pounds from the target given in July.

"Strong commercial execution for key products and new launches, notably Shingrix, together with an effective focus on cost control is driving this improved performance," Chief Executive Emma Walmsley said.

"We now expect 2018 adjusted EPS growth of 8-10 percent at constant exchange range."

($1 = 0.7832 pounds)

(Reporting by Paul Sandle; editing by Kate Holton)