A SURGE in sales of vaccines and Sensodyne toothpaste helped pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline beat forecasts in its latest quarter.

GSK said revenues rose by 3% to £7.1bn in the three months to September 30 – driven by a surge in cervical cancer vaccine Cervarix and a 23% rise in revenues for Sensodyne on the back of its new repair and protect toothpaste.

Underlying profits in the three months rose by 2% to £2.01bn. The total for the first nine months of the year stood at £6.4bn before one-off charges.

Chief executive Andrew Witty said sales should accelerate in 2012 as the company gets set to launch treatments for Parkinson’s Disease, Hepatitis C and asthma.

GlaxoSmithKline, the UK’s largest drug group, has nine treatments in late stage trials that are due to complete before the end of 2012 covering respiratory diseases, oncology, diabetes and HIV.

Mr Witty said that healthcare reform in the USA and price cuts in Europe will lop £325m off revenues this year with the possibility of more measures to reduce prices to come.

However, he expects underlying margins to start to improve gradually from 2012.

The group is also pushing ahead with the sale of some of its non-core consumer businesses, he added.

Shares in the drugs group rose by 1% on the figures as analysts praised a 6% increase in the quarterly dividend and £300m increase in next year’s share buyback target.