AstraZeneca foresees sooner-than-expected return to growth

14th Jan 2014 07:09

Biopharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca has said it expects to return to growth sooner than analysts currently predict.Chief Executive Officer Pascal Soriot said that the company has made good progress in accelerating and replenishing its portfolio in its three core therapeutic areas of oncology, cardiovascular/metabolic disease, and respiratory, inflammation and autoimmune diseases.Soriot is due to speak later on Tuesday at a conference in San Francisco, giving an update on current trading and outlining AstraZeneca's strategic priorities for 2014.The firm's late-stage pipeline currently has 11 Phase-III programmes, almost double the number of programmes compared with last year, and 27 Phase-II programmes, he said."Following the acquisition of Bristol-Myers Squibb's interests in the companies' diabetes alliance - expected to complete during the first quarter of 2014 - and as the alliance's pipeline of new products is progressively launched, AstraZeneca continues to believe a return to growth should come earlier than analyst consensus currently forecasts."BC