AstraZeneca earnings outlook up as cancer drug sales plug hole left by Covid jab

The FTSE 100-listed firm reported a 12% rise in third-quarter sales, excluding Covid-19 treatments, to 11.5 billion US dollars (£9.4 billion).

Staff work inside the AstraZeneca Laboratory in Macclesfield (Peter Byrne/PA) (PA Wire)

Pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca has hiked its earnings outlook as strong take-up of blockbuster cancer drugs offset the loss of sales from its Covid-19 treatments.

The FTSE 100-listed firm reported a 12% rise in third-quarter sales, excluding Covid-19 treatments, to 11.5 billion US dollars (£9.4 billion).

Including the impact of the Covid-19 sales hit, revenues lifted 5%.

It said sales of cancer medicines surged 20% in the first nine months of the year.

The result saw AstraZeneca increase its guidance for core earnings per share to grow by a “low double-digit to low-teens percentage” in 2023, compared with a previous forecast of high single-digit to low double-digit percentage growth.

It said total annual revenues, excluding Covid-19 medicines, are set to rise by a “low-teens percentage”, up from the previous guidance of low double-digit percentage.

Shares lifted 3%.

AstraZeneca revealed it saw zero sales of its Covid-19 vaccine in the three months to September 30 – the second quarter in a row of no revenues from the jab – which was developed with Oxford University to help protect people from the pandemic.

But Astra had always developed the jab, known as Vaxzevria, on a not-for-profit basis.

The figures come as AstraZeneca is facing a landmark legal case in Britain’s High Court over allegations relating to its Covid jab, with two test cases in which the vaccine triggered a rare condition.

A spokesman for AstraZeneca said: “From the body of evidence in clinical trials and real-world data, Vaxzevria has continuously been shown to have an acceptable safety profile and regulators around the world consistently state that the benefits of vaccination outweigh the risks of extremely rare potential side effects.

“The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Authority (MHRA) has granted full marketing approval for Vaxzevria for the UK based on the safety profile and efficacy of the vaccine.”