AstraZeneca Stock They were the biggest risers on the FTSE 100 index on Monday morning after US regulators authorized the use of one of their drugs.
Shares in the pharmaceutical giant rose 3.15 per cent, or 318 pence, to £104.12 as it was revealed that lung cancer drug Tagrisso, along with chemotherapy, has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration. USA
This follows a trial showing that those who received the combination saw their risk of death or disease progression from non-small cell lung cancer decrease by 38 percent compared to people who took Tagrisso alone.
Thumbs up: AstraZeneca revealed that the lung cancer drug Tagrisso, along with chemotherapy, has been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration.
Those who received the former had a median progression-free survival (the length of time a patient lives without the disease getting worse after treatment) of 25.5 months versus 16.7 months for the latter.
Tagrisso’s sales rose 9 percent at constant exchange rates to $5.8 billion last year thanks to strong growth in the United States and emerging markets.
Last year, it was AstraZeneca’s best-selling product behind Farxiga, a drug to treat type 2 diabetes, heart failure and chronic kidney disease.
Pasi A. Jänne, principal investigator of the trial, said: “By choosing two highly effective osimertinib-based options, doctors can better tailor treatment to individual needs and help ensure the best possible outcome for each patient.”
Laurie Ambrose, president and chief executive of lung cancer charity GO2, added: “We are very excited to see this continued progress promoting more personalized treatment options for our community.
“The more we can target the right treatments to the right people at the right time, the better the outcomes will be for our community, a goal we all collectively share.”
In 2023, AstraZeneca’s cancer drug sales rose 21 per cent to $18.4bn (£14.5bn), which accounted for around 40 per cent of its total turnover of $45.7bn.
In addition to Tagrisso and Farxiga, the company achieved significant growth in demand for leukemia drug Calquence and bile duct cancer treatment Imfinzi, which offset a drop in sales of the Covid-19 vaccine.
As a result, AstraZeneca’s pretax profits more than doubled, rising from $2.5 billion the previous year to $6.9 billion.
For the current year, the London-based company expects both revenue and earnings per share to expand in the low double-digits to low teens.