Shares in pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca (AZN) have fallen by around 16% over the past two months after recording an all-time high at the end of August.
This reflects disappointing late-stage clinical trial results for the company’s antibody cancer treatment Dato-DXd, being developed with Daiichi Sankyo (4568:TYO), but the shares lost around 5% on 30 October after the company said the president of its Chinese operations Leon Wang was under investigation by the authorities.
Investors will therefore be looking for answers to these latest scientific and political developments when the company reports third-quarter earnings on 12 November.
China is a big deal for AstraZeneca, generating almost $6 billion of revenue in 2023, and the UK firm is the largest foreign drug company operating in the country.
In September, it was reported that police in Shenzhen had detained some of AstraZeneca’s employees over possible infringement of data privacy laws and importing unlicensed medications.
Investors will be looking for an update on the company’s oral and injectable obesity drug candidates with early-stage clinical data being presented at Obesity Week in early November.
In the first half, the company reported revenue up 18% to $25.6 billion and a 5% increase in core EPS (earnings per share) to $4.03.
Management increased full-year guidance for revenue and core EPS to grow by a mid-teens percentage, up from a low double-digit to low-teens percentage previously.
These articles are provided by Shares magazine which is published by AJ Bell Media, a part of AJ Bell. Shares is not written by AJ Bell.
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Investors acting on the information in these articles do so at their own risk and AJ Bell Media and its staff do not accept liability for losses suffered by investors as a result of their investment decisions.
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