UPDATE 1-Britain's GSK profit beats estimates on shingles vaccine strength

Britain's biggest drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline Plc on Wednesday reported fourth-quarter adjusted profit that beat estimates, boosted by the sales of a handful of new drugs including its shingles vaccine.

The drugmaker, however, cautioned that full-year earnings would fall as much as 9 percent because of new competition for its blockbuster asthma drug Advair and the impact of its $5.1 billion Tesaro acquisition. GSK shares cut most of their mid-day losses after the results announcement to trade roughly flat at 1521.6 pence.

GSK reported adjusted earnings per share of 31.2 pence on sales of about 8.20 billion pounds ($10.62 billion) in the quarter. Analysts had expected earnings of 27.7 pence and sales of 7.95 billion pounds, according to a company-provided consensus https://www.gsk.com/en-gb/investors/analyst-consensus/analyst-consensus of 11 analysts.

The company said it expects full-year adjusted earnings per share to decline 5 percent to 9 percent, reflecting the recent approval of a generic competitor to Advair in the United States. Sales of Shingrix, the company's Shingles vaccine launched in 2017, more than doubled in the quarter to 221 million pounds, beating analysts' expectation of 200 million pounds.

The company's respiratory drugs franchise has been fueled by blockbuster asthma treatment Advair, but now faces competition from Mylan NV's generic, which won approval from U.S. regulators last month. Advair sales fell 21 percent to 2.42 billion pounds, on constant exchange rates, in 2018. ($1 = 0.7722 pounds) (Reporting by Ankur Banerjee and Pushkala Aripaka in Bengaluru; Editing by Bernard Orr)