CEO Says AstraZeneca Can ‘Absorb’ Costs of Trump-Driven US Deals

Pharmaceutical companies around the world are under massive pressure from President Donald Trump to lower drug prices and manufacture them on American shores.

UK drugmaker AstraZeneca, which reported ascendant results on Thursday, is taking him up on both suggestions. A good quarter certainly helps. The company’s net profit rose 77% year-over-year to $2.53 billion in the third quarter, and revenue grew 12% to $15.2 billion, beating analysts’ expectations. 

London Stalling

AstraZeneca is the biggest drugmaker in Britain, and its £193 billion ($253 billion) market capitalization tops the London Stock Exchange. That makes its symbolic and literal importance to the shrinking and struggling bourse practically seismic. Lately, however, the company’s attention has been diverted across the pond. Shareholders voted resoundingly (99.36%) on Monday in favor of plans to list directly on the New York Stock Exchange, while also remaining on the LSE. And, last month, AstraZeneca became the second major pharmaceutical company to strike a deal with the Trump administration on drug prices, agreeing to charge Medicaid the lowest price available in other developed countries and offer direct-to-consumer discounts up to 80%. In exchange, the Trump administration gave the company a three-year reprieve from 100% tariffs on branded pharmaceutical imports.

In the meantime, AstraZeneca plans to invest $50 billion to boost US manufacturing and research by 2030 to shore up its position in the crucial market. The US accounts for over 40% of revenue, which CEO Pascal Soriot said Thursday could be “half of our potential revenue by 2030.” He also issued warnings to Europe and the UK, where R&D spending lags behind that of the world’s two largest economies, that they might lose their health sovereignty. Separately: 

• AstraZeneca, which made $54 billion in revenue last year, reiterated a forecast that 2025 sales will grow “by a high single-digit percentage.” 
• The company has targeted $80 billion in revenue by 2030 and says it can “absorb the impact of” its US deal.

Joining the Fray: AstraZeneca’s powerhouse is its oncology portfolio, which accounted for 44% of revenue last quarter. The company is also joining the weight loss fray, where Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly have made billions. AstraZeneca said Thursday that it exercised an option to acquire SixPeaks Bio for $170 million, the cost of shares it didn’t already own. The Swiss company is developing weight-management drugs that preserve lean muscle mass, which is often lost by users of GLP-1 drugs like Novo’s Wegovy and Lily’s Zepbound.