(Reuters) -Drugmaker AstraZeneca lifted its annual sales and profit forecast for the second time in less than four months on Tuesday, helped by resilient demand for its cancer and rare diseases medicines, after third-quarter results beat estimates.
The London-listed company now expects 2024 revenue and core earnings per share to grow by a high-teens percentage, from a previous forecast of a mid-teens percentage at constant currency rates for both revenue and EPS.
“We are highly encouraged by the broad-based underlying momentum we are seeing across our company in 2024, and growth looks set to continue through 2025,” CEO Pascal Soriot said in a statement.
AstraZeneca’s shares have fallen about 17% in the past three months, reflecting market unease with the company’s business in China amid multiple investigations by national authorities. Its shares are down nearly 6% this year, underperforming a near 9% rise in the wider European health care sector.
Last week, the company said its China president Leon Wang had been detained by Chinese authorities and it did not know why.
“We take the matters in China very seriously,” Soriot said.
AstraZeneca said its Chief Financial Officer Aradhana Sarin had briefed sell-side analysts on the subject last Wednesday to quell concerns about a fraud probe expanding following a report by financial media company Yicai a day earlier that led its shares to plunge more than 8%.
The company has invested heavily in China, the world’s second-largest pharmaceuticals market after the United States, with the local business contributing 13% of group revenue last year.
The drugmaker reported core earnings per share (EPS) of $2.08 on total revenue of $13.57 billion for the quarter ended Sept. 30, above analyst expectations of $2.04 per share on revenue of $13.1 billion, according to a company-compiled poll.
Sales at its oncology business grew 22% at constant exchange rates to $5.57 billion.
Separately, AstraZeneca said on Tuesday it would invest $3.5 billion of capital in the United States focused on expanding its research and manufacturing footprint by the end of 2026.
(Reporting by Yadarisa Shabong in Bengaluru and Maggie Fick in London; Editing by Rashmi Aich, Kirsten Donovan)
Brought to you by www.srnnews.com
