| As of Monday, August 24th: |
Since the start of the quarter, the Q2 growth rate has risen from -31.1% to -27.4%. (Data provided by Thomson Reuters)
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AstraZeneca raised its full-year earnings forecast on Thursday after reporting healthy second-quarter results, helped by the absence of generics to heart drug Toprol XL and cancer treatment Casodex.
The increased outlook had been widely anticipated by analysts, but the shares still rose on the news.
AstraZeneca's upbeat quarter follows a generally buoyant results season from other global pharmaceutical companies, demonstrating the industry's relative resilience in the economic downturn.
Healthy near-term prospects, however, contrast with doubts about the sector's long-term outlook due to a wave of patent expiries for many top products.
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CNBC.com |
AstraZeneca has its share of looming losses but has escaped some of the pain expected this year because of the lack of large-scale generic competition for some of its drugs in the United States.
Pretax profit at the Anglo-Swedish drugmaker rose 14 percent in the quarter to $2.61 billion on sales flat at $7.96 billion, equivalent to "core" earnings per share of $1.64.
Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast core EPS, which excludes certain restructuring costs and charges, of $1.41.
The group's lifted its forecast for 2009 EPS to $5.70 to $6.00 from $5.15-5.45, taking it above many analysts' numbers.
Shares in AstraZeneca [AZN
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] rose 1.01 percent in late trade.
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Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes