GSK: Encouraging Bepirovirsen Data but Narrow Commercial Upside Supports Hold Rating

Bank of America Securities analyst Sachin Jain reiterated a Hold rating on GlaxoSmithKline today and set a price target of p2,000.00.

Sachin Jain has given his Hold rating due to a combination of factors surrounding GSK’s pipeline and the commercial outlook for bepirovirsen. While he acknowledges that the Phase III results in chronic Hepatitis B are encouraging and support GSK’s view of a potentially sizeable revenue opportunity over time, he also notes that the market has largely not embedded major upside from this asset yet. Moreover, his 2,000 GBp price objective implies only modest upside from the current share price, suggesting that much of the near‑term fundamental improvement is already reflected in the valuation.

Jain also highlights several structural and execution risks that temper the upside case. The largest portion of the bepirovirsen opportunity lies in emerging markets, particularly China, where scalability, reimbursement visibility, and pricing remain uncertain. In addition, the clinical benefit is concentrated in a relatively narrow subset of patients with low baseline surface antigen levels, which limits the addressable population and makes broad commercial uptake less assured. Combined with questions around incremental benefit versus existing nucleos(t)ide analogue therapy and the lack of clear benefit for the majority who do not achieve a functional cure, these factors lead Jain to conclude that a Neutral (Hold) stance is appropriate at this stage.

According to TipRanks, Jain is a 3-star analyst with an average return of 3.2% and a 57.62% success rate. Jain covers the Healthcare sector, focusing on stocks such as GlaxoSmithKline, Sanofi, and AstraZeneca.

In another report released yesterday, Berenberg Bank also maintained a Hold rating on the stock with a £16.60 price target.