LONDON, June 17, 2026, 13:04 BST
- GSK was up 0.6% at 1,962p in London. The stock outperformed the FTSE 100, which was weaker.
- GSK’s $10.6 billion buyout of Nuvalent is still in focus, with investors assessing the company’s biggest purchase in over ten years.
- Buybacks gave some support. But execution risk in lung cancer is still the real test.
GSK shares traded higher in London on Wednesday, even as the UK blue-chip index edged down. Investors kept looking at the drugmaker’s plan to strengthen its cancer unit with a planned buyout of U.S. biotech Nuvalent.
GSK shares traded at 1,962p, up 0.62%, at 12:41 p.m. in London after opening at 1,948.5p. The FTSE 100 slipped 0.14% earlier as traders looked at UK inflation data ahead of the Bank of England’s rate call.
GSK is under pressure to prove it can expand past HIV treatments and vaccines. Shares are up this week, which helps CEO Luke Miels defend a deal bigger than the small acquisitions investors expected.
GSK said this month it will buy Nuvalent for $10.6 billion in cash, putting up $124 a share, which is 40% over the last U.S. close. The deal gives GSK access to two late-stage lung cancer drugs, zidesamtinib and neladalkib. U.S. regulators are expected to make decisions on those drugs late in 2026.
“It’s essentially three products in one,” Miels told reporters, explaining GSK’s decision to go bigger than usual on the deal. He said the buyout should bring “significant new treatment options” to lung cancer patients. Reuters
GSK’s deal brings it into closer competition with AstraZeneca, as well as Roche and Pfizer, in targeted lung cancer drugs. AstraZeneca got 44% of its revenue from oncology last year, Reuters said, compared to GSK’s 6%. James Eugene, analyst at Verso Investment Management, said investors may not have expected the Nuvalent deal to be this large.
GSK’s capital return programme gave some technical support. A filing Monday showed GSK bought 1.10 million ordinary shares from June 8 to June 12, bringing total buybacks since May 11 up to 7.35 million shares. These share repurchases cut the number of shares in issue and can boost per-share earnings if profits stay steady.
UK stocks saw muted trade. Inflation in Britain stayed at 2.8% in May, surprising analysts. Markets await the Bank of England’s move on Thursday. “For the investor it is a dilemma; good news for the economy’s resilience is bad news as it justifies a rate hike,” Webull UK CEO Nick Saunders said. Reuters
GSK faces risk by striking the Nuvalent deal now, before it secures approvals or launches. The company said it expects the acquisition to close in the third quarter, and sees core earnings per share — profit per share excluding some items — getting hit by a low single-digit percentage from 2026 through 2028. GSK still has to contend with commercial threats from older treatments including Pfizer’s Lorbrena and Roche’s Alecensa.
GSK shares are trading above the company’s 1,950p reference from Tuesday, but have yet to recover to the 52-week high at 2,282p. The market is now less focused on the prospect of another deal, and more on whether the latest transaction can drive sales.
