Unlock the Editor’s Digest free of charge
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favorite tales on this weekly e-newsletter.
Robust gross sales of most cancers medication and biopharmaceuticals helped push up revenues at AstraZeneca by 10 per cent within the first quarter, because the drugmaker mentioned it might deepen its manufacturing presence within the US.
The Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical group on Tuesday reported income of $13.6bn within the first three months of the 12 months, up 10 per cent 12 months on 12 months in fixed currencies, and declared it was “firmly dedicated to investing and rising within the US” because the sector braces for the fallout of Donald Trump’s commerce struggle.
Chief government Pascal Soriot mentioned the FTSE 100 group continued to profit from its “broad-based income and world manufacturing footprint”, including it was planning “even larger” funding past its 11 US manufacturing websites.
The replace comes as pharmaceutical teams, together with AstraZeneca, put together themselves for potential US tariffs. Although the business has thus far benefited from exemptions, Trump has repeatedly mentioned he deliberate to use levies to the sector.
Soriot instructed reporters that the corporate’s tariff-related publicity was restricted and would fall additional because it shifted manufacture of European-made merchandise to the US. “Past 2025, any affect will likely be shortlived, due to the flexibility we now have to maneuver issues round,” he mentioned.
He added: “If you see the quantity of funding that’s at the moment going into the USA, it actually sends a really robust sign that Europe has to contribute to . . . pharmaceutical innovation much more. As a result of, sadly, in any other case all these jobs — whether or not they’re manufacturing jobs or R&D jobs — are going to maneuver to the US over time.”
AstraZeneca derived about 40 per cent of its gross sales from the US within the first three months of the 12 months and had already committed to investing $3.5bn in America by the tip of 2026 as a part of a plan to fulfill an formidable goal of just about doubling revenues by $80bn by 2030. Soriot mentioned the group was making “wonderful progress” in the direction of that objective.
AstraZeneca’s core earnings per share — a key metric within the business — elevated 21 per cent to $2.49, effectively forward of consensus forecasts. Pre-tax income have been up 21.5 per cent 12 months on 12 months to $3.4bn.
In the meantime, currency-adjusted revenues climbed by not less than 9 per cent in all areas exterior China, in an indication of the drugmaker’s broad-based world enterprise and the power of demand for its oncology portfolio. Oncology division gross sales rose 13 per cent, helped by expansions in the usage of current medication.
Gross sales on the firm’s China enterprise elevated 5 per cent, because it sought to manage a scandal that led to the detention of a high government. The group mentioned it may be penalised as much as 5 occasions the $1.6mn the Shenzhen Metropolis Customs Workplace suspects it owes in unpaid importation taxes. AstraZeneca shares fell 4 per cent in early buying and selling in London.
China’s investigation into AstraZeneca triggered the detention in October of Leon Wang, who oversaw the nation in his former function as government vice-president of the worldwide area.
The corporate mentioned it had been individually knowledgeable by Chinese language authorities that it had made no unlawful acquire from alleged infringements of private info laws.
Soriot mentioned the corporate had “taken accountability” for what had occurred in China and made adjustments to its operations there.
“We stay very dedicated to China,” he mentioned. “It’s an essential marketplace for us: not solely as a result of hundreds of thousands of sufferers want our medicines, but in addition as a result of China has turn into an important . . . engine of innovation in our business.”
