In 2012, reported sales were down 1% but were flat adjusting for the disposal of our non-core over-the-counter Consumer Healthcare brands. Overall, strong performances in emerging markets and other growth businesses largely offset declines in USA.

Shareholder returns

Effective cost control and delivery of financial efficiencies enabled the Group to deliver core EPS of 112.7p. During 2012, GSK returned £6.3 billion to shareholders via dividends and share buy-backs.

R&D productivity

Our business is sustained through investment in R&D. In 2012 we spent £3.5 billion before non-core items, £4.0 billion in total, in our search to develop new medicines, vaccines and innovative consumer products.

During the year we saw significant delivery from our late-stage pipeline. New vaccines were approved for flu, meningitis and meningitis-Hib. We  also received two significant new indications for existing medicines treating cancer and hepatitis.

We also filed six key new products for approval with regulators, including treatments for respiratory disease, cancer, HIV and diabetes. This is an unprecedented level of late-stage pipeline delivery for the company.

We have dedicated research programmes for diseases that affect the developing world, and we are one of the few healthcare companies researching both new vaccines and new medicines for all three of the World Health Organization’s priority diseases: HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis.

Overall, our return on R&D investment has been increasing and we remain confident we can reach our long-term goal of 14%.