Focus on U.S. Stock Q1 2026 Earnings Reports Key Points

Two leading UK pharmaceutical companies, AstraZeneca and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), reported better-than-expected core profits for the first quarter of 2026 on Wednesday, indicating a strong start to the year. Executives from several European pharmaceutical firms have recently warned that the Most Favored Nation (MFN) drug pricing policy being advanced by the Trump administration, which links U.S. drug prices to lower prices in other countries, could reduce the introduction of new drugs in Europe.

AstraZeneca, the UK's second-largest company by market value, and GSK, the ninth-largest, both announced first-quarter profits that exceeded market expectations on Wednesday morning.

AstraZeneca: Core earnings per share (EPS) were $2.58, surpassing the FactSet analyst consensus of $2.53. GlaxoSmithKline: Core EPS was £0.47 ($0.63), higher than the expected £0.43.

Concurrently, a growing number of pharmaceutical executives are cautioning that policies implemented by the Trump administration to lower U.S. drug prices could slow the pace of new drug launches in Europe—unless Europe addresses key issues affecting competitiveness. Executives from European firms including Novartis, AstraZeneca, Roche, and Boehringer Ingelheim stated that under the Trump administration's MFN policy, where prices in the lucrative U.S. market would be benchmarked against lower prices in other countries, Europe might miss out on opportunities to access innovative new medicines. Novartis CEO Vas Narasimhan told CNBC on Tuesday that the MFN policy has "not yet materially landed," but its effects will become more apparent over the next 18 months. During AstraZeneca's earnings call on Wednesday, CEO Pascal Soriot described the Anglo-Swedish company as being in a "catalyst-rich period." In April, late-stage trial results for its cancer drug Imfinzi, used in combination therapy, showed it significantly delayed disease progression in liver cancer patients. At the end of March, two late-stage trials for an experimental lung disease drug from the company both met their primary endpoints, surprising the market as similar drugs from competitors had failed their trials. Soriot expressed confidence that AstraZeneca is on track to achieve its target of $80 billion in revenue by 2030. First-quarter revenue reached $15.3 billion, an 8% year-on-year increase, exceeding expectations of $14.9 billion. GlaxoSmithKline reported first-quarter revenue of £7.63 billion ($103 billion), a 5% increase compared to the previous year, meeting market expectations. Over the past 12 months, the stock performance of both AstraZeneca and GlaxoSmithKline has significantly outperformed the Europe Stoxx 600 Index and the UK's FTSE 100 Index:

GlaxoSmithKline: Up 42% AstraZeneca: Up 30% Stoxx 600 Index: Up 15% FTSE 100 Index: Up 22%