Astrazeneca shares race ahead after drug success

FIVE years after Astrazeneca fought off a takeover by rival Pfizer, it is hard to argue with boss Pascal Soriot’s claim that the drug maker’s best days were ahead of it.

The company’s shares were trading at record highs yesterday, giving it a market capitalisation just shy of £100bn.

That was after more promising clinical trial results, the latest in a blitz of summer announcements.

First up were findings that its type 2 diabetes treatment, Farxiga, reduces a patient’s risk of heart failure and cardiovascular death.

In a study of patients with reduced ejection fraction, a condition when the heart does not pump as much blood as normal, it said the risk of cardiovascular death was cut by 26pc.

There was also more detail on a study of Brilinta, another one of Astra’s heart drugs.

When coupled with aspirin, the firm said the treatment cut the risk of heart attacks and strokes by 10pc in patients with coronary artery disease and type 2 diabetes. It was even more effective in diabetes patients who had previously undergone surgery to have a stent fitted.

Mene Pangalos, Astra’s executive vice president for biopharmaceuticals research and development, said this would ‘make a difference’ because patients with both coronary artery disease and type 2 diabetes were twice as much at risk of heart attacks and strokes.

And investors seemed to agree, sending Astra’s shares 2.9pc, or 215p, higher to 7533p.

Whisper it, but there was also good news for embattled ITV.

Although its advertising sales have been hammered by Brexit uncertainty, analysts at Liberum say the UK’s exit from the EU may carry a silver lining for the commercial broadcaster.

This is because the Government has launched a £100m marketing campaign – the biggest of its kind since the Second World War – urging citizens and businesses to ‘get ready’ for our planned departure on October 31. Liberum reckons ITV, as the nation’s biggest commercial TV broadcaster, stands to grab a hefty slice of this spend – possibly even as much as £30m.

That could come as welcome relief to ITV boss Carolyn McCall, who has spent most of this year warning that Brexit worries have stopped advertisers from spending as much cash.

It helped ITV’s shares to edge up 0.5pc, or 0.6p, to 116.55p.

Liberum told clients: ‘We see traditional media such as linear TV and outdoor claiming the majority of the total spend given the need for extensive reach, and thus highlight ITV and [billboards owner] JC Decaux as main beneficiaries.

‘For ITV, this will increase the chance of a TV advertising revenue growth guidance beat.’ In financial markets more widely, however, Brexit continued to prove a conundrum.

With all eyes on Westminster, Boris Johnson was yesterday thought to be considering a general election to get around a roadblock being put in place by rebel MPs in Parliament.

It sent the pound tumbling, with investors flocking to defensive stocks and helping to lift the

FTSE 100 by 1pc, or 74.76pts to 7,281.94 points.

At the same time, companies with big foreign operations that stand to benefit from a weaker sterling traded higher including

Diageo (up 2.5pc, or 87.5p, to 3591p), British American Tobacco (up 0.75pc, or 21.5p, to 2901.5p) and Glaxosmithkline (up 1.5pc, or 25.2p, to 1736.8p).

Unilever, meanwhile, gained as well after analysts at Goldman Sachs upgraded it from ‘neutral’ to ‘buy’, betting that sales in developing markets such as Brazil would soon perk up.

It helped lift shares in the firm by 1.4pc, or 75p, to 5271p.