AstraZeneca said it is on track to hit its revenue target for 2030 and has drugs in the pipeline to fuel growth beyond, as the company reported higher second-quarter sales driven by its cancer medicines.

The U.K. drugmaker on Monday sought to reassure investors after a pivotal trial missed the mark earlier this month, leading some to doubt whether the goal to reach $80 billion in revenue by 2030 set two years ago was still within reach and knocking shares down.

"I have never been more confident in the strength of our pipeline," AstraZeneca Chief Executive Pascal Soriot said on a call with reporters.

Soriot said the company assumed from the outset that some of its drug candidates would fail in trials, and that its target was based on sales forecasts adjusted for that risk.

With the recent launches of hypertension drug Baxfendy and breast-cancer treatment Etcamah, AstraZeneca is more than halfway through its plan to launch 20 new medicines by 2030, he said.

AstraZeneca said its sonesitatug vedotin experimental treatment for gastric cancers helped improve patients' survival rates, but didn't show a statistically significant change on survival without the disease getting worse in a late-stage study. These were the first results of its portfolio of wholly owned antibody-drug conjugates, a fast-growing class of cancer therapies.

The company is due to provide updates on twenty high-value studies over the next year and a half with potential to strengthen its portfolio beyond 2030, highlighting the replacement power of its pipeline, Soriot said. It doesn't need mergers and acquisitions to achieve its targets, he added.

London-listed shares in AstraZeneca were up 1.5% in European midday trading. The stock took a hit this month when the company said its Wainua drug didn't meet the main objective of a late-stage clinical trial for a heart disease, and hasn't recovered since.

For the second quarter, AstraZeneca reported total revenue of $15.38 billion compared with $14.46 billion for the same period last year, with a 5% increase when adjusted for currency changes.

Analysts had forecast AstraZeneca's total revenue at $15.42 billion, according to consensus estimates compiled by Visible Alpha.

The company reported a 15% increase in revenue from oncology products at constant currency, driven by continued growth of drugs like Tagrisso and Imfinzi. This offset a decline in its cardiovascular, renal and metabolism franchise after its Farxiga drug went off patent.

Net profit rose to $2.51 billion from $2.45 billion. Excluding exceptional items, core earnings per share were up 18% at constant currency at $2.63.

AstraZeneca reiterated its full-year guidance and still expects revenue to increase by a figure in the mid-to-high single-digit percentage range and core EPS to grow by a low double-digit, excluding currency movements.

Write to Adria Calatayud at adria.calatayud@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 27, 2026 07:22 ET (11:22 GMT)

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