London (AFP) – British pharmaceutical group AstraZeneca announced Friday a 23-percent jump in net profit for the third quarter and a new programme aiming for annual savings of $1.5 billion. Profit after tax increased to $3.12 billion in the July-September period compared with the third quarter of last year, thanks in large part to its cancer treatments, Britain’s biggest drugs company said in a statement. Welcoming also a rise in revenue, chief executive Pascal Soriot said AstraZeneca had “multiple potential blockbuster” drugs in late-stage development.
Its savings programme will cost $2.0 billion before delivering the desired yearly benefits. “AstraZeneca is in a catalyst-rich period with more than 180 pipeline projects driving its next wave of growth and scientific innovation,” the company said. “To capitalise on this opportunity, the company has initiated the Reshaping for Sustainable Growth programme to…invest behind its industry-leading pipeline and transformative technologies.” AstraZeneca said the savings generated would be reinvested into the drugs pipeline.
Group revenue grew seven percent to $16.2 billion in the third quarter from a year earlier, with oncology accounting for 48 percent of the total. The company said it remained on track to meet a 2030 target of $80 billion in group annual revenue, up from nearly $59 billion last year. It predicts sales in the United States to account for half of the target. Increasingly pivoting to the US market, AstraZeneca in February began listing its shares directly on the New York Stock Exchange to attract more investors.
The group added Friday that net profit reached $8.7 billion for the first nine months of the year. Following the updates, AstraZeneca’s share price jumped 3.1 percent on the London stock exchange, where the benchmark FTSE 100 index was up slightly overall. The group is also increasing its focus on China and earlier this year said it would invest $15 billion in the country by 2030 to expand manufacturing and research. Alongside its blockbuster cancer drugs, AstraZeneca has also been developing a weight-loss treatment, given the popularity of GLP-1 drugs such as Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy and Eli Lilly’s Mounjaro.
© 2024 AFP
