July 27 (Reuters) – AstraZeneca topped second-quarter profit expectations and backed its 2026 forecasts on Monday on demand for its therapies, as the drugmaker sought to quell concerns over longer-term growth prospects after a recent trial failure.
Although strong demand for cancer and rare disease therapies continues to drive growth for the pharmaceuticals giant amid pricing pressures, an unexpected trial failure this month has turned attention to its drug pipeline and whether its longer-term revenue target could be under threat.
The company’s core earnings for the three months ended June 30 rose 18% to $2.63 per share, while total revenue jumped 5% to $15.38 billion at constant-currency rates.
Analysts on average were expecting profit of $2.48 per share on sales of $15.39 billion, according to a company-compiled consensus.
AstraZeneca continues to expect 2026 core earnings per share to increase by a low double-digit percentage, with total revenues rising at a mid-to-high-single-digit rate. In 2025, it had reported a sales and profit growth of about 8% and 11%, respectively.
(Reporting by Pushkala Aripaka in Bengaluru and Maggie Fick in London, Raechel Thankam Job and Sri Hari N S; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala)
