Thursday preview: Astrazeneca to report decline in third quarter sales

Astrazeneca is expected to report a drop in third quarter sales on Thursday after failing to prevent generic drug makers from bringing cheaper rivals of its best-selling medicine Crestor.

Analysts expect generic versions of cholesterol fighting drug Crestor will have sent revenue down 1% to $5.87bn in the three months to September, down from $5.95bn a year earlier. The group is expected to reveal net income of $731m, down 5% from the $770m the previous year.

Deutsche Bank expects product sales to decline by 10% at a constant exchange rate and core earnings per share to drop about 4%, due to the erosion of Crestor and divestments.

Generic versions of heartburn medicine Nexium are also expected to have provided a drag.

Astrazeneca is looking to boost sales growth with new drugs, including blood-thinner Brilinta and Tagrisso for lung cancer. Deutsche Bank said Tagrisso should benefit from continued US growth and its recent launch in Japan.

The bank also sees Brilinta continuing to show solid growth with US prescriptions increasing 40% year-on-year.

Deutsche Bank added that risks to Astrazeneca include failure to deliver cost savings, lower platform sales, pipeline failure and a fall in sales of pipeline drugs.

Meanwhile, investors will be looking for an update following’s last month’s setback on its experimental cancer medicine duralumab. The company suspended recruitment for two large clinical trials on durvalumab while it investigates some instances of bleeding among participants.

Thursday 10 November

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