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LONDON (Alliance News) - AstraZeneca PLC on Thursday posted a drop in annual profit after getting a boost from its Lynparza cancer drug collaboration the year before, though guided to earnings growth for the year ahead.
The pharmaceutical giant's pretax profit for 2018 was USD1.99 billion, a drop of 11% from USD2.23 billion in 2017.
Astra's externalisation revenue - which is from collaborations, partnerships, commercialisation, and out-licencing deals - which more than halved USD1.04 billion from USD2.31 billion. This was the result of receiving USD997 million from its Lynparza collaboration with Merck & Co Inc in 2017.
Product sales in 2018 were USD21.05 billion, an increase of 4.5% from USD20.15 billion the year before. Consensus was for USD21.00 billion.
Overall revenue, which includes externalisation revenue and product sales, was USD22.09 billion, versus USD22.47 billion in 2017. This compares to company-compiled consensus of USD22.05 billion.
Astra declared a second interim dividend per share of USD1.90 per share, taking its total dividend to USD2.80, flat on 2017.
Astra's 2019 guidance is for a high single-digit percentage increase in product sales at constant currency, following a 4% year-on-year rise in 2018.
It is also guiding for core earnings per share of between USD3.50 and USD3.70 at constant currency. In 2018, core earnings per share totalled USD3.46, dropping 19% from USD4.28 in 2017.
"Our strategy and plans remain unchanged, with sales growth and a focus on cost management anticipated to drive growing operating profit. I'm pleased that we are fully on track to meet these commitments as we build a sustainable level of growth and a pipeline that is benefitting more and more patients around the world," said Astra Chief Executive Pascal Soriot.
