Swine flu gives Glaxo shot in the arm

LONDON (Reuters) - Sharply higher sales of flu drug Relenza buoyed GlaxoSmithKline's quarterly sales and the British group said it was in line for a big swine flu vaccine boost in the last three months of the year.

Third quarter earnings per share growth of 13 percent, flattered by a weak pound, was just shy of expectations while group revenue rose 15 percent, helped by recent diversification, the world's second biggest drugmaker said on Wednesday.

Glaxo has lost plenty of business this year to cheap generics, as patents on its older medicines expire, but windfall sales of drugs and vaccines due to H1N1 will soften the blow.

As with many of its rivals, 2009 is turning out better than initially feared and Chief Executive Andrew Witty said he expected further growth in the fourth quarter of this year "including significant sales of influenza products."

Glaxo has taken orders for 440 million doses of its H1N1 vaccine Pandemrix and analysts believe it could book around 1 billion pounds ($1.64 billion) of this business in the fourth quarter as immunization campaigns get underway.

European companies drugmakers Glaxo, Sanofi-Aventis, Novartis and AstraZeneca are set to win the bulk of the business for mass swine flu vaccination programs launched by governments around the world.

Roche, meanwhile, has seen a sharp jump in sales of flu drug Tamiflu, a rival to Glaxo's Relenza.

Glaxo's pre-tax profit totaled 2.07 billion pounds in the third quarter, equivalent to earnings per share before major restructuring of 28.5 pence, on sales of 6.76 billion.

The mean consensus forecast had been for earnings of 28.7p and sales of 6.81 billion pounds, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Glaxo trades at about 10.4 times forecast 2010 earnings, a premium to AstraZeneca and Sanofi -- which report on Thursday and Friday respectively -- but a discount to Swiss rivals Roche and Novartis.

(Reporting by Ben Hirschler)