Below is cut and paste (partial) of an article from the Times (UK).... I've highlighted a passage for you @thrasher. Its AZD or bust with this stock IMO.
Four of its 13 blockbuster drugs, generating a combined $9 billion of sales in 2021, almost a quarter of its total product sales, will begin to face generic competition before the end of the decade. Brilinta, its cardiovascular drug, does so next year; Farxiga, the diabetes, heart failure and chronic kidney disease treatment, will follow in 2026; Soliris, the rare blood disease drug, will be next in 2027; and then it’s the turn of Lynparza, the ovarian cancer drug, in 2028.Soriot is more than hopeful this time. For years he has been preparing AstraZeneca’s portfolio to ensure it can grow into another cycle. In a presentation at JP Morgan’s healthcare conference last month in San Francisco, the industry’s biggest annual gathering, Aradhana Sarin, 48, AstraZeneca’s chief financial officer, outlined the company’s “optimised” loss of exclusivity profile and talked-up its “industry-leading growth” post-2025.
That growth is built on securing new authorisations for different diseases throughout its medicines, expanding sales geographically and launching new molecules. To prevent a repeat of the downturn that AstraZeneca faced in 2012, the company has been investing heavily in research and development, underpinned by advances in artificial intelligence, data and digital health. Such spending rose to more than 20 per cent of revenues in 2022, compared with 14.7 per cent in 2011 and about 18 per cent across the industry. It has 179 projects in its pipeline, including 13 potential new medicines.
AstraZeneca also has been scouring the world for acquisitions and partnerships. Last month it acquired CinCor Pharma, a United States-based clinical-stage company focused on developing treatments for blood pressure and chronic kidney disease, for up to $1.8 billion. The acquisition was designed to strengthen its pipeline ahead of patent expiries to Farxiga by adding Baxdrostat, a drug that is due to enter phase III trials and potentially could be combined with Farxiga.
