Chief executive says revenue rise will allow drugmaker to boost investment in R&D
Hannah Kuchler in LondonJuly 29 2022
AstraZeneca has raised its revenue guidance for the full year after strong sales of its Evusheld Covid-19 antibody treatment and drugs to treat cancer and rare diseases.
The Anglo-Swedish drugmaker now expects total revenue to increase by a low 20s percentage, up from its previous forecast for growth in the high teens. It stuck to its previous guidance for core earnings per share, expecting it to rise by a mid-to-high 20s percentage.
AstraZeneca’s chief executive Pascal Soriot said the expected revenue rise would allow the company to boost investment in research and development.
“We look forward to announcing the results of several important late-stage trials this year and next,” he said.
Shares in AstraZeneca, which have risen 25 per cent this year, fell 2.8 per cent to 10,570p in early morning trading in London on Friday.
The drugmaker beat sales and earnings expectations in the second quarter. It reported total revenue of $10.8bn, higher than the average analyst estimate for $8.7bn, and up 37 per cent year on year on constant exchange rates.
Oncology contributed $3.8bn, up 20 per cent from the same period the year before, while the rare disease portfolio, acquired when AstraZeneca purchased Alexion, rose 12 per cent year on year to $1.8bn, from the figures it reported as an independent company. The Alexion deal closed a year ago, so its revenue was not included in AstraZeneca’s sales for the same period in 2021.
Sales of Evusheld, an antibody treatment that helps protect people who do not respond to vaccines, were $445mn and are expected to increase in the second half.
AstraZeneca has received government contracts for Evusheld in the US, EU, Canada, Latin America, south-east Asia, Australia and China. But the UK government has not ordered the drug, with the former health secretary Sajid Javid telling the Financial Times last month that it was acting on clinical advice, waiting for more data on the drug’s ability to tackle variants.
Soriot said the drug was important to protect the vulnerable and to reduce the risks of new variants, which can mutate inside people who take a long time to clear the virus.
“Protection is very strong for at least six months and it’s really been shown to clearly protect against all variants,” he said. “But at the end of the day, of course, every country has to make a decision on how to deploy the healthcare budget.”
AstraZeneca’s Covid vaccine, developed with the University of Oxford, generated $455mn in sales but these are expected to decline in the rest of the year.
Core earnings per share soared 89 per cent at constant exchange rates to $1.72, above the consensus forecast for $1.57. Operating profit was $539mn, down 53 per cent at constant rates.
AstraZeneca also announced that board member Michel Demaré would succeed Leif Johansson as chair in April 2023. Demaré has served on the company’s board since 2019 and is already chair of IMD business school and Swiss software company Nomoko, as well as being a non-executive director at Vodafone.
Johansson will retire next year after chairing the drugmaker for more than a decade. He announced his plan to step down earlier this year and AstraZeneca said Demaré’s appointment followed a “robust succession planning process” led by senior independent non-executive director Philip Broadley.
Fonte: Financial Times