As­traZeneca surges on So­ri­ot’s up­beat as­sess­ment of its pipeline

Shares of As­traZeneca $AZN shot up 5.5% to­day as CEO Pas­cal So­ri­ot says its pipeline is full to burst­ing with R&D prospects that can dri­ve bil­lions of dol­lars in new rev­enue.

And that is once again help­ing to spur chat­ter about a pos­si­ble megamerg­er deal for the phar­ma gi­ant, two years af­ter it suc­cess­ful­ly fought off Pfiz­er’s em­brace by bold­ly pro­ject­ing 2023 sales of $45 bil­lion. To­day, So­ri­ot backed away from that pledge, say­ing that new ex­change rates would like­ly force its pro­jec­tions down to around $40 bil­lion to $41 bil­lion.

Unlock this article instantly by becoming a free subscriber.

You’ll get access to free articles each month, plus you can customize what newsletters get delivered to your inbox each week, including breaking news.

SIGN UP LOG IN BECOME A PREMIUM SUBSCRIBER