Cancer drug demand boosts Astra revenue

ASTRAZENECA posted bumper sales yesterday as demand for its cancer drugs soars.

The pharma giant, which vies with Shell to be the most valuable company on the London stock market, posted revenues of £10bn for the first three months of the year.

That was up 19pc from a year earlier and topped market expectations, sending the shares up 5.9pc, or 674p, to 12,026p.

The shares have trebled in value since US rival Pfizer went public with its interest in buying the company ten years ago.

The bid, which failed, valued Astra at £63bn. It is now worth £185bn.

Chief executive Pascal Soriot continues to grow the pipeline of new drugs.

In more than ten years at the helm, he has been on a spree, scooping up blockbuster treatments such as lung cancer drug Tagrisso and leukaemia medicine Calquence.

Cancer treatments have been a particular success, making up two-fifths of revenues in the latest quarterly results.

But Soriot suggested that the pace of new deals could be slowing.

He said: ‘We’ll continue, of course, to look at business development.

‘But for the technology side, we have mostly what we need to build the future.’

The figures come just weeks after Astra was rocked by a shareholder revolt as more than a third of investors rebelled over fat-cat pay. Some 35pc voted against a deal which could hand Soriot £18.7m this year. This would take his total earnings to £153m since he took over in 2012.