AstraZeneca sees sales hit by copycats

ASTRAZENECA admitted yesterday its sales had been hit by copycat products as it beat off an investor rebellion over boardroom pay.

The firm, which has been battling competition from generic versions of its drugs as patents expire, said first quarter sales fell 6pc to $6.1bn while operating profits dipped 8pc to $1.8bn.

Product sales fell 3pc as cheaper versions of its blockbuster heartburn drug Nexium hit the US market earlier this year.

But AZ (down 80.5p to 4749.5p) highlighted strong results in emerging markets and progress with its cardiovascular drug Brilinta. The firm said a deal with haematological specialist Celgene to develop and commercialise a treatment for blood cancers such as non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

Shareholders representing about 17pc of the total votes cast yesterday either opposed the AngloSwedish drugs group’s pay report, or withheld their votes.

Some investors claimed the company had not linked long-term management incentives to revenue targets it adopted in its defence against a failed £69bn takeover bid by rival Pfizer last year.

After Pfizer abandoned the bid, Old Mutual Global Investors fund manager Richard Buxton said that he believed incentives for Astra executives should ‘vest only at the level of the spurned takeover’.

He said this would assure shareholders that if things did not go as planned, executives would share the pain. An AstraZeneca spokesman claimed pay is ‘linked to strategy and delivery’ and aligned with the interests of shareholders.

A SEPARATE pay controversy hit John Lewis Partnership as chairman Charlie Mayfield’s salary rose 3pc this year, taking his package to £1.53m, an increase of 0.6pc. His annual bonus fell more than 20pc to £104,000. But Mayfield’s basic salary of £941,000 is 66 times the average pay received by non-managers within the partnership.