Astra proves its mettle after snubbing Pfizer

AstrAZenecA yesterday reported a slide in sales and profits a year after fending off a £69bn hostile takeover bid from Us rival Pfizer.

the company, Britain’s secondlargest drug maker, said secondquarter revenues fell 7pc to £4bn, pushing down sales for the first half by 6pc to £7.9bn.

Profits sank 17pc to £591m in the second quarter and 5pc to £1.2bn over the first six months of the year.

the figures were better than expected, however, with strong demand for diabetes treatments and the blood thinner Brilinta.

AstraZeneca shares rose 3.1pc or 128.5p to 4319.5p – still well below the £55 a share Pfizer offered – as it held its interim dividend at 57.7p a share.

chief executive Pascal soriot, who led the resistance against Pfizer, hailed a ‘strong performance’ as the company raised its forecasts for the year.

AstraZeneca, which faces the loss of patents for some of its biggest- selling drugs, now expects a ‘low single digit’ percentage decline in revenues rather than a ‘mid-single digit’ fall.

soriot has promised investors that the company will return to growth in 2017 when new cancer treatments reach the market.

He said he was pleased at lung cancer drug Iressa and breast cancer drug Faslodex winning regulatory approval. two further drugs, for lung cancer and ovarian cancer, have been submitted for approval.

‘Astra has one of the most impres- sive pipelines in the european industry, ’ said emmanuel Papadakis, an analyst at MainFirst Bank.

It was feared that the takeover of AstraZeneca by Viagra maker Pfizer would put jobs and expertise in the crucial life sciences industry at risk.

But the successful defence put pressure on AstraZeneca to show that it could prosper as an independent business, particularly as some major shareholders had urged it to talk to Pfizer.

Ketan Patel, an associate fund manager at EdenTree Investment Management, said: ‘Investors will be highly focused on the pipeline update. Following one of the bitterest failed takeover bids in recent years, shareholders have endured a volatile share price.’

Shares in smith & nephew, europe’s biggest maker of artificial hips and knees, also rose yesterday after it reported a 4pc rise in first-half revenues to £1.5bn and a 6pc rise in profits to £328.5m. the British firm raised its interim dividend by 7.3pc to 7.6p a share and the stock rose 2.8pc or 32p to 1167p.