The U.K.’s AstraZeneca is a leading global pharma giant

Article Excerpt

AstraZeneca is a major developer and distributor of pharmaceutical products. It’s also the largest holding in the iShares MSCI United Kingdom ETF. The company is listed on the London Stock Exchange with a market value of $212 billion U.S.—comparable to the market values of Roche, Novartis, Novo Nordisk, and Johnson & Johnson. Over the last 12 months, AstraZeneca had revenues of approximately $49 billion U.S. and a net profit of $6.5 billion U.S. This global giant develops, manufactures, and sells pharmaceutical and biotechnology products to treat disorders in the oncology, cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, infection, neuroscience, respiratory, and inflammation areas. The company’s best-selling product is Tagrisso, a lung cancer treatment. Tagrisso generated total revenue of $6 billion in 2023. Other top-selling products are Farxiga (cardiometabolic diseases), Imfinzi (cancer), Lynparza (cancer), Soliris (blood disease) and Symbicort (asthma). Astra also has several drugs in the development pipeline, which can help offset losses from drugs with upcoming patent expirations. These include Camizestrant (breast cancer), Truqap (breast cancer), Wainua (rare…