GlaxoSmithKline reported that combined fourth-quarter sales of influenza A (H1N1)

vaccine and pandemic vaccine products to governments amounted to 835 million pounds ($1.4 billion), according to preliminary figures.

CEO Andrew Witty said the result is close to forecasts made by analysts in October that called for sales of about 1 billion pounds ($1.6 billion) in the last three months of 2009, and similar sales in the first part of 2010.

However, analysts at Credit Suisse have reportedly reduced their outlook for the company's 2009 and 2010 H1N1 vaccine revenue by $800 million.

The company noted that around 130 million doses of its pandemic H1N1 adjuvanted vaccine were delivered to governments in the fourth quarter, and that orders continue to be delivered in the first half of this year as discussions between GlaxoSmithKline and governments continue. "It is therefore too early to say what the final number of doses supplied and the value of these orders will be," the drugmaker stated.

In October, the company confirmed it received orders from 73 governments to supply a total of 440 million doses of the vaccine, although it has recently had to renegotiate orders as demand for the product dropped.

Morgan Stanley analysts initially estimated revenue of 2.2 billion pounds ($3.6 billion) for the drugmaker from H1N1 products in the final quarter of 2009 and the first three months of 2010, but they predicted in December that sales for GlaxoSmithKline and other vaccine makers may be as much as 15 percent lower than expected.