Pharmaceuticals giant GlaxoSmithKline prescribed itself a forecast-busting 16 per cent increase in full year profits to £6.73 billion before tax today - boosted by strong sales of its asthma drug Advair and diabetes medicine Avandia.

Glaxo said sales of Advair jumped 22 per cent to £3 billion for the year. Sales of Avandia rose 18 per cent to £1.3 billion. The group's two leading drugs products helped push total sales for the year up 8 per cent to £21.66 billion.

As well as putting on a strong showing for the full-year, Glaxo increased pre-tax profits by 21 per cent in the final quarter to £1.6 billion.

Jean-Pierre Garnier, the chief executive, said; "GSK's fourth quarter performance was a great finish to an excellent year for the company. Looking into 2006, the strong growth seen from key products such as Seretide/Advair, Avandia and from our vaccines business is set to continue, and we expect further good news on GSK’s late-stage pipeline.

"Eight major assets are scheduled to enter phase III [late-stage clinical trials] in 2006 – this will double the number of assets in late-stage development. I am also delighted that Cervarix, our cervical cancer vaccine, is expected to be filed for approval in Europe in the next few weeks and in the United States before the end of the year."

Having traded lower in the run-up to the drug-maker fourth quarter and full year results statement, shares in GSK added 8p to 1,452p in early afternoon trade after it had provided some reassurance on its pipeline for new drug approvals.

City analysts have been concerned about the speed with which some of the giant pharmaceuticals groups such as GSK and AstraZeneca can replace some of their blockbuster drugs that are due to come off-patent over coming years.

Losing the patent for best-selling drugs, such as Zantac in GSK's case, means rivals firms can begin to produce cheaper copycat versions of the medicines.

But GSK said it expected to receive approval for seven drugs this year, including its Rotarix oral vaccine for gastroenteritis in children. It also plans to file patents for a further seven over this period, including for Tykerb, its oral treatment for breast cancer.

The healthy fourth quarter and full-year profits at the drugs group came after GSK surprised some in the City at the beginning of the week by revealing that Tadataka "Tachi" Yamada, its much respected head of research and development, would be leaving in June to work for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

As part of a series of moves that will eventually culminate in GSK finding a replacement for M Garnier, Mr Yamada will hand over research and development to Dr Moncef Slaoui, a 17-year veteran of the group.

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