By Dhirendra Tripathi
Investing.com – ADRs of AstraZeneca (NASDAQ:AZN) fell more than 4% in Friday’s premarket trading as the company’s third-quarter profit fell short of estimates.
Disappointing sales in China from its top-selling cancer drug Tagrisso, along with the high costs of integrating its recent acquisition, Alexion (NASDAQ:ALXN), both weighed on the bottom line, which was only partially offset by the start of profits booked from its Covid-19 vaccine, Vaxzevria.
Vaxzevria achieved $1.05 billion in sales in the quarter. The company had previously said it would end its policy of selling the drug at cost price once the pandemic emergency was over. It will still continue to sell the drug at cost to developing nations. Its ability to generate returns on Vaxzevria, meanwhile, is likely to be constrained by higher the loss of market share to vaccines produced by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA), which have shown higher efficacy rates.
Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) expects its Covid vaccine to bring in $36 billion in sales this financial year, although Moderna was recently forced to revise down its sales guidance due to manufacturing problems. It has also been partially suspended in various countries due to suspected links to heart inflammation in some age groups.
The company’s profit per share in the September quarter came in at $1.08 per share. Total product sales jumped 47% to $9.74 billion. Total revenue was $9.86 billion.
It now expects its annual revenue, including from Covid vaccine, to grow by around 27%. It expects EPS to be around $5.23.