As­traZeneca chief Pas­cal So­ri­ot her­alds the start of a 'pe­ri­od of sus­tained growth for years to come'

As­traZeneca CEO Pas­cal So­ri­ot de­clared vic­to­ry to­day in the long-run­ning fight to turn around the strug­gling phar­ma gi­ant, gain­ing a sig­nif­i­cant spurt in Q3 sales for the com­pa­ny and point­ing to a pe­ri­od of “sus­tained growth” dri­ven by new prod­uct de­vel­op­ment, a strong com­mer­cial or­ga­ni­za­tion and suc­cess in the grow­ing Chi­na drug mar­ket.

Yes, rev­enue slid 14%, large­ly as a re­sult of a lull in the kind of ag­gres­sive “ex­ter­nal­iza­tion” from its drug port­fo­lio that has buoyed the com­pa­ny for years. But with its big 3 can­cer drugs — Lyn­parza, Tagris­so and now Imfinzi — lead­ing the way, the com­pa­ny has a work­able strat­e­gy to keep ex­pand­ing sales. That starts with a 9% in­crease in Q3 while year-to-date there’s been a 2% growth in this col­umn.

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