- Firm gets EU nod for three therapies
- Imfinzi already a 'blockbuster' in sales terms
- News caps an impressive share price performance
FTSE 100 pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca (AZN) released a slew of positive news regarding trial results and drug approvals heading into the Christmas break.
Having rallied more than 20% from their late-October lows the shares initially dipped 0.5% to £111.04 as investors digested the news.
WHAT IS THE GOOD NEWS?
AstraZeneca specializes in vaccines and cancer treatments and has already delivered shareholders several pieces of good news this year on drug approvals.
Today’s news builds on its earlier success with the announcement that following its landmark approval two months ago by the US FDA (Federal Drug Administration) to treat liver cancer, the combination of its cancer drug Imfinzi with its antibody drug Imjudo has been recommended for approval for sale in the European Union for advanced lung and liver cancers.
Imfinzi is one of AstraZeneca’s fastest-growing treatments, with sales rising from $1.5 billion in 2019 to $2.4 billion last year.
The EU also approved the use of AstraZeneca’s Enhertu antibody drug, developed jointly with Japan’s Daiichi Sankyo (4568:TYO), as a monotherapy treatment in patients with advanced gastric cancer, following extensive trials in the US, Europe and Asia.
Lastly, the EU recommended the firm’s Forxiga treatment for approval for symptomatic chronic heart failure which would make it the first therapy to be used across the full ‘ejection fraction’ range of heart failure conditions with a proven ability to reduce mortality.
The firm’s sales of Enhertu and Forxiga last year were less than $1 billion each, the level generally used to describe a drug as a ‘blockbuster’.
A GROWING SPECIALISM
AstraZeneca has developed an increasingly strong franchise in cancer treatments in the last few years and has added to its own roster of drugs with the acquisition of next-generation therapies.
Late last month the firm announced a $320 million deal to buy Amsterdam-based Neogene Therapeutics, a maker of next-generation T-cell receptor drugs which target solid cancer tumours.
T-cells are part of the immune system which develop from stem cells in bone marrow and help protect the body from infection.
A day earlier, the company revealed it had signed an exclusive global licensing agreement with UK drug discovery firm C4X Discovery (C4XD:AIM) worth up to $402 million.
