GSK shares dive as weaker sales and mounting costs unnerve investors

British pharma company reports declining profits amid weaker vaccine sales and looming patent loss for blockbuster HIV drug

Shares in GSK slid on Wednesday despite the UK drugmaker reporting better than expected financial results, as investors were unnerved by weaker vaccine sales, restructuring charges and its overall outlook.

Britain’s second-biggest pharmaceutical company reported a 19% decline in pre-tax profit to £1.9bn in the July to September quarter and £318m of restructuring charges, with more to come.

Shares dived as much as 7% at one point on Wednesday, and despite later paring back to a 5.5% drop, it remained the biggest faller on the FTSE 100 index of blue-chip businesses.