AstraZeneca shares boosted as earnings rise
ONE of the North West’s biggest employers, pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca, has reported a 40% hike in profits for the first three months of the year.
The Anglo-Swedish company, which has more than 6,000 employees at two sites in Cheshire, made a profit of £2.02bn between January and March, £578m more than the same period the year before.
Sales of the heart drugs Toprol-XL and Crestor helped improve profits despite unchanged sales levels.
The company’s share price rose by 4%, with some analysts surprised that the firm did not increase its full-year earning forecasts.
Costs were held in check by the weakness of the pound and Swedish crown, although the strength of the US dollar had a 7% negative impact on revenues.
Chief executive David Brennan said the company’s decision to leave its full-year earnings forecast unchanged “continued caution about the 2009 outlook for the pharmaceutical sector in the context of global economic conditions”.
The majority of the company’s staff in the region are cancer researchers at the giant Alderley Park site in Alderley Edge. AZ also has a manufacturing site in nearby Macclesfield.
