AstraZeneca revenues rise to $54bn as it enters ‘unprecedented’ period for company

AstraZeneca is expecting Phase III trial data for seven new medicines in 2025, its CEO said as he confirmed the company’s revenue rose by more than a fifth to nearly $54.1billion (£43.3bn) last year.

Pascal Soriot said 2025 marked “the beginning of an unprecedented, catalyst-rich period for our company” as it looks to bolster revenue to $80bn by 2030.

Meanwhile, he expressed disappointment that the company had to scrap plans for a £450million vaccine plant in Liverpool.

The Cambridge-based biopharmaceutical giant said its 2024 revenue performance was driven by a 19 per cent increase in product sales, continued growth of partnered medicines and the achievement of sales-based milestones.

Its oncology drugs achieved 24 per cent growth, while sales of respiratory and immunology drugs were up 25 per cent and its cardiovascular, renal and metabolism medicines achieved 20 per cent growth. Vaccines and immune therapies grew 8 per cent, while revenue from rare disease medicines rose 16 per cent.

Pre-tax profits rose by 26 per cent to a stronger-than-predicted $8.7bn (£6.97bn) for the year.

Mr Soriot said: “Our company delivered a very strong performance in 2024 with total revenue and core EPS [earnings per share] up 21 per cent and 19 per cent respectively. We also delivered nine positive high value Phase III studies in the year, which coupled with increasing demand for our medicines in all key regions, will help sustain our growth momentum into 2025.

“This year marks the beginning of an unprecedented, catalyst-rich period for our company, an important step on our Ambition 2030 journey to deliver $80billion total revenue by the end of the decade. In 2025 alone, we anticipate the first Phase III data for seven new medicines, along with several important new indication opportunities for our existing medicines.

“We are also investing in and making significant progress with transformative technologies that have the potential to drive our growth well beyond 2030, many of which have now entered pivotal trials.”

Despite the revenue success story, AstraZeneca is not proceeding with plans for a vaccine plant in Liverpool after an offer from the Labour government failed to match the £90m grant aid put forward by the previous Conservative government.

“We couldn’t make the business case work and couldn’t make the investment economically viable,” said Mr Soriot. “We needed the same level of support to make this economically viable. It wasn’t possible for the government to justify it, which we totally understand, and we said we couldn’t justify it either. We were all very disappointed, but that’s business life.”

He added there was “no issue, no tension” with the government, confirming the firm had planned to increase investment in the manufacturing plant in Speke, Merseyside, “to more than £500 million”.

Mr Soriot said more needs to be done in the UK to boost investment in the pharmaceutical sector.

“It’s clear that the UK needs to continue working on improvements to the investment environment to promote investment and address issues of access,” he said.

While announcing its annual figures, AstraZeneca also warned that it could face a fine in China over possible unpaid import taxes.

AstraZeneca said authorities in Shenzhen have said the unpaid taxes amount to $900,000 (£700,000).

“A fine of between one and five times the amount of unpaid importation taxes may also be levied if AstraZeneca is found liable. AstraZeneca continues to fully cooperate with the Chinese authorities,” the company said.

It believes the taxes relate to its Imfinzi and Imjudo drugs, but could possibly widen to breast cancer drug Enhertu as well.

AstraZeneca appointed Iskra Reic as executive vice president for international markets, including China, in December, after previous executive Leon Wang was arrested by Chinese authorities along with other employees.

Mr Soriot confirmed that tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China being imposed by US President Donald Trump would not affect the company, as it does not import from those countries into America.