London (AFP) – British pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca on Monday said net profit rose in the second quarter, driven once again by strong growth in sales of its cancer drugs. Profit after tax climbed more than two percent to $2.5 billion in the three months to the end of June, compared with the same period last year, AstraZeneca said in a results statement.
Group revenue increased six percent to $15.4 billion in the quarter, thanks to sustained strong demand for its cancer and rare disease medicines. AstraZeneca reconfirmed its outlook for the full year after its latest profit beat analyst expectations. Chief executive Pascal Soriot said the company was “on track” to deliver its ambition of $80 billion in total revenue by 2030, despite an unexpected late-stage trial failure earlier this month.
Shares in the company had slumped in early July after its new heart disease drug Wainua failed to meet targets, in a rare setback for the drugmaker. “People have got used to us delivering with a high success rate but we have to accept we will fail from time to time,” Soriot said on a media call Monday. “Overall, we are making good progress with a very high success rate across our portfolio,” he added.
AstraZeneca shares rose almost two percent in midday trading on London’s FTSE 100 index, which was trading higher overall. “Soriot stuck to full-year sales and profits guidance and reassuring updates on the drug development pipeline also helped to boost the shares,” said AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould.
Alongside its blockbuster cancer drugs, the company has been investing in developing a weight-loss treatment. Last month’s trial results showed that its new pill appears to help people lose a similar amount of weight to other GLP-1 oral drugs. If confirmed by further research, the pill could mark AstraZeneca’s entrance into the massively lucrative weight-loss drug market currently dominated by Denmark’s Novo Nordisk and American giant Eli Lilly.
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