AstraZeneca shares were 4.5% higher on Thursday after the pharma giant released a very respectable set of results for 2022. Revenue increased by 25% on a constant current basis and core EPS rose 33%.
The surge in revenue was a result of improved performance across all major therapy areas, and the inclusion of new drugs such as Alexion.
Although the entirety of 2022 saw robust sales growth, there was weakness in the fourth quarter due to declines in their COVID-19 vaccine, Vaxzevria. Group fourth quarter revenue was up just 1% on a constant currency basis, however, when Vaxzevria is stripped out of the numbers, revenue from Astra’s remaining products rose 17%.
“A big drop in COVID vaccine sales is part of the larger COVID cliff that is may impact the industry in the short term,” said Susannah Streeter, senior investment and markets analyst, Hargreaves Lansdown.
“Growth was also boosted by the acquisition of rare disease specialist Alexion. Perhaps it’s no surprise that 2023 guidance is for a more muted year with total revenue guidance in the low to mid-single digit range. Excluding COVID medicines this creeps into double digits.”
In addition, AstraZeneca were confident in the quality of their pipeline which rounded off a generally robust release from the £166bn FTSE 100 stalwart.
AstraZeneca shares were 4.5% higher at the time of writing on Thursday.
“2022 was a year of continued strong company performance and execution of our long-term growth strategy,” said Pascal Soriot, Chief Executive Officer, AstraZeneca.
“We made excellent pipeline progress with a record 34 approvals in major markets and we are initiating new late-stage trials for high potential medicines such as camizestrant, datopotamab deruxtecan and volrustomig.”