New data has emerged on Thursday as AstraZeneca reveals its earnings in the third quarter.
For the three months to 30 September 2018, revenue dropped by 14% totalling $5.34 billion. Additionally, earnings per share dropped by 37% to $0.71 per share in the third quarter.
The revenue drop was driven by a decline in externalisation revenue. Externalisation revenue slid by 81% to $392 million as the company’s partnership with MSD for their Lynparza treatment weighed.
AstraZeneca also released its plans concerning Brexit, outlining the significant preparations to handle different scenarios.
The company is committed to safeguard access to medicines for its patients. It has said it will focus on the reduction of mutual interdependence, replicate critical production processes in both the UK and EU and coordinate variations to licences and thousands of packaging-material changes.
Likewise, it is ensuring the supply chain between UK and Swedish factories. It will move additional stock to EU distribution centres, build six weeks’ worth of stock in the UK and four weeks’ worth in the EU. Furthermore, it will reach out to EU and Member State governments, calling on them to accept the UK’s testing standards.
The company’s CEO has previously warned of the medicine shortages following Brexit, and the potential dangers this may impose on patients. In the event of a no-deal departure from the European Union, Britain may face widespread medicine shortages. “We have products that go back and forth between the UK and Europe at different stages of manufacturing”, he said. “If drugs are stuck, you have a problem”.
The company’s CEO is not the only one to express fear of a no-deal Brexit. Outside of the pharmaceutical sector, S&P have warned that a no-deal will trigger a recession.
AstraZeneca’s report did show that product sales increased by 8% to $5.27 billion. This was boosted by its new cancer drugs. Indeed, oncology sales increased by 30% during the third quarter.
From the start of 2018, pre-tax profit dropped by 31% to $1.26 billion. This compares to a $1.820 million from a year earlier.
At 09:29 GMT today, shares in AstraZeneca plc (LON:AZN) were trading at +1.83%.
At the beginning of October, AstraZeneca sold rights to the German company Grunenthal for an acid-reflux medicine.
