Astrazeneca urges faster Brexit progress as it ups stockpiles of drugs

THE boss of Astrazeneca has called for faster progress to avoid a “no deal” Brexit and confirmed the company is increasing stockpiles of medicines in case of an abrupt exit by the UK from the European Union.

Pascal Soriot, chief executive at the drugmaking giant, said the UK and EU governments needed to speed up talks to ensure drugs were delivered on time to patients on both sides of the Channel, after the firm posted solid half-year results yesterday. “We are doing all we can to make sure patients don’t run out of medicines. But all parties need to find a way to negotiate with the EU to clarify things,” he said.

Astrazeneca has started to increase its medicine inventory in Britain from three months’ supply to four in case drug shipments hit delays after March. Astrazeneca’s revenues came in at $10.3bn (£7.8bn) for the first half of 2018, down 1pc on the previous year. Pre-tax profits also fell, down 27pc to $786m due to higher investment.

Mr Soriot said he still expected the firm to return to sales growth in the second half of the year, and for this to “accelerate” in the years to come as new drugs pick up market share. The firm’s cancer drugs unit posted a 42pc rise in sales to $2.7bn, boosted by demand for cutting-edge treatments such as Tagrisso, Lynparza and Imfinzi.

However this was offset by a further dive in sales for legacy drugs including Crestor, which was down 39pc to $727m as it faced competition from copycat drugs.

Mr Soriot also said Astrazeneca would not increase drug prices in the US in the second half of the year, amid intense pressure from president Donald Trump on pharmaceutical companies to bring down prices.

He claimed Astrazeneca’s prices were “declining” in the US due to rebates it was paying to clients and it had “had a plan all along not to increase prices in the second half ”.

Astrazeneca shares closed up 4.2pc at £57.96.