Broker snap: Astra to profit from rivals' tardiness

8th Jul 2009 12:01

Producers of generic alternatives to AstraZeneca's prostate cancer drug Casodex have been slow off the mark, and this has created an unexpected windfall for the UK drugs giant, Panmure Gordon reckons.US drugs firms Mylan and Caraco received approval from the US Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) yesterday to start shipping their generic versions of Casodex, but this was around three months later than Panmure Gordon had been expecting. The delay could have been worth around $75m in revenues to Astra, the broker estimates, adding that earnings estimates may be upgraded as a result.The broker rates the shares a "buy" in expectation of a strong trading update on 30 July. Panmure is also expecting the company to release detailed data from its heart pill Brilinta at the end of August at the European Society for Cardiology annual congress in Barcelona. "We also look forward to the US approval of Onglyza [a diabetes treatment] as well as the first presentation of phase III data from the company's diabetes product candidate dapagliflozin, which we expect on 2 October 2009 at the European Association for the Study of Diabetes annual meeting in Vienna," the broker's analyst Savvas Neophytou said.