The Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca increased its sales and profit projection for 2024 on Thursday, meeting analyst forecasts for second-quarter revenue due to robust demand for its treatments for cancer and rare diseases.
The company's main business, oncology, saw sales climb 19% at constant currency rates to $5.33 billion, accounting for 41% of total sales. AstraZeneca's divisions for heart and kidney disease, rare diseases, and uncommon diseases also saw double-digit growth.
At 0730 GMT, the shares were down 2.7%
Since CEO Pascal Soriot took over more than 12 years ago, the most valuable corporation in the UK, with a market capitalization of 189.4 billion pounds ($243.89 billion), has undergone substantial change. Antibody-drug conjugates are among the emerging technologies that will contribute significantly to cancer treatments in the future.
The company's portfolio of cancer medicines and robust pipeline, which includes new treatments in other disease areas by the end of the decade, have allowed it to surpass the Covid vaccine, which was its best-selling product at the height of the pandemic in 2021, as seen by the sales prognosis.
At constant currency rates, AstraZeneca now projects a mid-teens percentage gain in sales and core profits per share for 2024. Prior to this, it had projected a low double-digit to low teens percentage rise in revenue and earnings.
"In the year to date we have continued to make encouraging progress with several disruptive technologies ... all of which have the potential to drive our growth beyond 2030," Soriot, CEO, stated.
The business stated at its investor day in May that it planned to increase sales by around 75% to $80 billion by 2030. The company cited the anticipated introduction of 20 new medications as well as expansion in its portfolio of rare diseases, cancer, and biopharmaceuticals.
For the three months ending in June, total sales increased by 17% on a constant-currency basis to $12.94 billion, and core profits were $1.98 per share. Based on a company-compiled consensus, analysts were projecting a profit per share of $1.98 on revenue of $12.6 billion for the quarter.
By Wednesday's close, the shares had gained almost 14% so far this year. In contrast to the STOXX 600 Index's 7% gain, the shares of Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche have increased by 11% this year while those of British competitor GSK have increased by 4.1%.
