In July 2022, Haleon was created out of GSK’s decision to separate its Consumer Healthcare business. Prior to this, it functioned as a joint venture between GSK and Pfizer, where GSK held a majority stake of 68%.¹ The collaboration brought together two highly trusted portfolios of consumer health brands together, including Pfizer’s Advil, and GSK’s Sensodyne and Panadol.² This joint venture achieved annual sales of £9.6 billion in 2021, and had a 7.3% global market share – however Johnson & Johnson’s Consumer Health revenue this year was higher, at approximately £11.2 billion. At this time Johnson & Johnson had an extremely well-established portfolio of products, including baby care, skincare, OTC medicine, and owned several very prominent consumer brands such as Aveeno, Listerine, Neutrogena, and Johnson’s Baby. Despite the £1.6 billion difference in revenue, GSK and Pfizer’s joint venture performed strongly given its narrower category focus, which was mostly OTC drugs. GSK and Pfizer’s successful joint venture allowed Haleon to enter the market with a strong and stable start as an independent company.
Competition: The consumer market health sector already had many well-established and strong competitors, such as Procter & Gamble, Colgate-Palmolive, and Unilever.³ ****Unilever had previously attempted to acquire the joint GSK-Pfizer Consumer Healthcare Business in January 2022, and GSK stated these proposals from Unilever ‘fundamentally undervalued its Consumer Healthcare business and its future prospects’. This highlights the direct competition between Haleon and Unilever in the global market, but was also an advantage for Haleon in entering the market as it showed investors and other competitors that it was a high-value and credible player in the consumer healthcare market.
Zantac lawsuits: There were 79,000 lawsuit cases claiming that Zantac, a popular heartburn drug sold by GSK since the 1980s, caused cancer. These claims were corroborated by the FDA which ordered Zantac to ultimately be pulled from the market.⁵ This damaged Haleon’s reputation and market value - its share price fell by 13.7%.⁶ However it seems that there has been no long term damage as due to the dismissal of most of the cases, and Haleon maintaining its stance of not being liable as it claims neither it nor GSK marketed the drug in the US. Therefore the damage was only short-term and Haleon’s share price quickly recovered.
Overall, Haleon has demonstrated a strong performance and sustained growth in the Consumer Healthcare market. In 2024, Haleon had an organic revenue growth of 5%, which is expected to be 4-6% in 2025.⁷ In 2024 Kenvue only had an organic revenue growth of 1.5%.⁸ Kenvue is the company that now includes all of Johnson & Johnson’s previous products and brands that were under its consumer healthcare sector. This clearly shows that Haleon is performing extremely well, as it is able to outcompete a company that has many strong brands across a wider variety of sectors in consumer healthcare. Rather than relying only on brand legacy or a having a wider range of products, Haleon focuses and prioritises on essential consumer health categories such as pain relief and oral health, which it already holds leading market positions in. This more focused approach allows it to concentrate its investments, research, and marketing on these specific categories instead of in categories where it does not hold a leading position. Haleon’s active expansion through targeted acquisitions and outperformance of major competitors like Kenvue indicates that it is a leading force in the industry, and as its portfolio and market reach expands, its influence will continue to grow stronger.