AstraZeneca stays in sick bay but boss points to a recovery

AstraZeneca shares took another hit today, as profits and revenue fell and the City was left searching for signs of growth.

The shares slipped 63p to 4184p, languishing far below the 5555p takeover bid made by Pfizer for the business three years ago.

That leaves chief executive Pascal Soriot under considerable pressure. Today he said Astra is “approaching the inflection point for our return to growth”.

Sales for the year fell 7% to $23 billion (£18 billion), leaving profits down 19% at $4.9 billion.

Astra has been hit by the availability of cheaper generic rivals to its cholesterol drug Crestor in particular. US president Donald Trump has pledged to reduce barriers to selling new medicines, but also to negotiate tougher deals from big drugs companies supplying hospitals.

After five years of sales declines, Soriot says new products will see the company’s sales rise 75% to $45 billion by 2023.

Hopes for hitting his sales target partly hang on approval of durvalumab for cancer treatment.

But the pharmaceuticals group arguably got a bigger result in November, when Trump won.

This week has shown why: yesterday, Astra’s shares were among the FTSE 100’s highest risers, up 2.2%, extending their gains after Trump’s promise the day before to cut the barriers on selling new medicines.