“With better-than-expected pricing of +8.8% on a year-to-date basis, we now forecast full-year pricing of +8 to +9%.”

In context

“we believe the overall future of Vectura will be better served under its new ownership. Together with the divestment, we announced the establishment of master service agreements to support the continued development of our inhaled therapeutics proprietary pipeline. Our Wellness & Healthcare strategy continues, and we look forward to updating you on future developments, including launches of consumer wellness products. Moving now to combustibles, where our portfolio delivered a very strong financial performance. Net revenues grew +8.6%, driven by Q3 pricing of +9.7%. This includes pricing taken during the quarter as we continue to focus on value maximization, and was led by markets such as Egypt, Turkey and Germany. As covered earlier this drove a very robust +8.7% increase in gross profit. With better-than-expected pricing of +8.8% on a year-to-date basis, we now forecast full-year pricing of +8 to +9%. Cigarette volumes were resilient, as global industry trends remain benign. As I touched on earlier, this can be largely attributed to markets where smoke-free products are not allowed or are early in their development, as well as the impact of significant industry efforts and geopolitical factors on global illicit trade in a number of markets. Our cigarette category share grew by +0.1 points in Q3 and year-to-date. Both Marlboro and our overall global brands achieved their highest quarterly share since the 2008 spin-off, with a corresponding positive impact on value share. As announced last week, there has been some long-awaited progress towards resolution of the decades-old cigarette-related litigation claims in Canada. Our Canadian affiliate RBH was deconsolidated in 2019 after entering”