AstraZeneca Profit Jumps as It Unveils 1.5 Billion Dollar Savings Plan

AstraZeneca beat sales and profit forecasts in the third quarter of 2026 and used the results on Friday, October 30, to launch a restructuring programme meant to free about 1.5 billion dollars a year for its drug pipeline.

Total revenue rose 7 percent at constant exchange rates to 16.21 billion dollars in the three months to September 30. Core earnings per share rose 19 percent at constant rates to 2.79 dollars, ahead of analyst forecasts of 2.59 dollars on revenue of 15.94 billion dollars. Reported operating profit rose 26 percent at constant rates to 4.39 billion dollars, and reported profit after tax rose to 3.12 billion dollars from 2.54 billion dollars a year earlier. Alliance News put pretax profit up 22 percent at 3.96 billion dollars.

Where the growth came from

Cancer drugs carried the quarter. Oncology revenue rose 17 percent to 7.77 billion dollars, with Enhertu sales up 35 percent to 969 million dollars and Imfinzi sales up 26 percent to about 2 billion dollars. Diabetes drug Farxiga went the other way, with sales down 25 percent to 1.61 billion dollars after generic copies launched in the United States. For the first nine months of 2026, total revenue rose 7 percent at constant rates to 46.88 billion dollars and core earnings per share rose 14 percent to 8.00 dollars.

The restructuring

The programme, called Reshaping for Sustainable Growth, is expected to deliver annualised pre tax benefits of about 1.5 billion dollars, reinvested mainly in research and development. It will cost up to 2 billion dollars in one time charges and should be largely complete by the end of 2029. The company gave few details and did not say whether it will cut jobs. Chief Executive Pascal Soriot is pushing investment in oncology, obesity and rare diseases as he works toward a target of 80 billion dollars in annual revenue by 2030. The firm also completed a 2 billion dollar investment in Summit Therapeutics for a stake of about 12 percent.

AstraZeneca kept its full year 2026 guidance unchanged, forecasting revenue growth in the mid to high single digits and core earnings growth in the low double digits at constant rates. Shares rose about 3 percent in morning trade in London. The company reported 12 positive Phase III trial readouts so far this year, and says late stage results due in 2027 could support more than 20 billion dollars in peak annual sales.