AstraZeneca: quarterly report welcomed by market

(CercleFinance.com) - AstraZeneca reported higher first-quarter sales and profit on Friday, performance that was driven more by the strength of its cancer treatments than by sales of Covid vaccines.


The Anglo-Swedish company this morning reported sales of 7.3 billion dollars in the first three months of the year, up 11% like-for-like.

Revenues from its oncology business climbed 16% like-for-like to over three billion dollars, with sales of Tagrisso (lung cancer) and Imfinzi (bladder cancer) up 13% and 17% respectively.

In comparison, Covid-19 vaccine sales were only 275 million dollars in the first three months of the year.

Overall, core earnings per share rose 53% on a like-for-like basis to 1.63 dollar.

Following this "robust" performance, the group confirmed its targets for the full year 2021, which include core EPS of between 4.75 and five dollars.

The publication was welcomed by investors in London, where AstraZeneca shares were up 2.7% in early trading.


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