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(Alliance News) - AstraZeneca PLC on Thursday announced that it signed a contract for an obesity drug as it reported a higher pretax profit in the third quarter of 2023, boosted by cancer drug conjugate Enhertu.
The Cambridge-based pharmaceutical company said third-quarter pretax profit rose 79% to USD1.65 billion from USD922 million a year prior. Post-tax profit however fell 16% to USD1.38 billion from USD1.64 billion. It paid USD274 million in taxation, compared to receiving USD720 million in tax benefit in the third quarter of 2022.
AstraZeneca reported core earnings per share growth of 3.6% to US1.73 from USD1.67 a year prior.
Revenue grew 4.6% to USD11.49 billion from USD10.98 billion, as the company hailed an increased number of new patient starts for Calquence, a prescription medicine to treat adults with mantle cell lymphoma. It noted continued solid growth in Europe for Calquence despite growing competitive pressure.
AstraZeneca highlighted that combined sales of Enhertu, recorded by Tokyo-based partner Daiichi Sankyo Co Ltd, in the first nine months of 2023 surged to USD1.84 billion from USD750 million a year prior.
Enhertu is an antibody-drug conjugate that AstraZeneca and Daiichi jointly develop. It is used to treat some forms of breast cancer.
Cost of sales decreased 30% to USD2.10 billion from USD2.98 billion.
"Our company continued its strong growth trajectory in the third quarter with total revenue from our non‑Covid-19 medicines up 13% compared to last year," Chief Executive Officer Pascal Soriot said.
It now expects full-year core EPS growth in the "low double-digit to low-teens percentage" range at constant currency. It had previously predicted "high single-digit to low double-digit percentage" growth.
Meanwhile, it announced it entered into an exclusive agreement with Eccogene's receptor agonist ECC5004, focused on treating obesity and cardiometabolic conditions.
The deal could be a threat of competition for Novo Nordisk AS, a dominant force in the weight loss drug space with Wegovy and Ozempic.
Under the deal, AstraZeneca receives exclusive global rights to develop and commercialise ECC5004, which in a phase 1 trial showed body weight reductions across dose levels tested compared to placebo.
AstraZeneca will pay Shanghai-based Eccogene USD185 million upfront and up to USD1.83 billion additionally in future clinical, regulatory and commercial milestones and product net sales.
Finally, AstraZeneca hailed results of Imfinzi, which in combination with bevacizumab and transarterial chemoembolisation in a phase 3 trial demonstrated statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement in progression-free survival in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma eligible for embolisation. The trial was in comparison to solely transarterial chemoembolisation.
Susan Galbraith, executive vice president of AstraZeneca's oncology research & development unit, said: "These positive results for Imfinzi-based treatment in Emerald-1 may bring the potential of immunotherapy to patients with earlier stages of liver cancer. We look forward to discussing these data with regulatory authorities and seeing the survival data mature over time, which will be important as we aim to bring this novel treatment option to patients."
Hepatocellular carcinoma is the most common type of liver cancer.
AstraZeneca shares rose 3.1% to 10,482.00 pence each on Thursday morning in London.
By Tom Budszus, Alliance News reporter
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