𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

AstraZeneca has revealed that demand for its range of cancer treatments buoyed sales this year as the drugs giant increased spending on new research.

The Cambridge-based company said sales growth within its oncology and rare disease divisions helped deliver a boost.

It reported total revenues of 30.67 billion US dollars (£22.99 billion) for the first six months of 2026, up 6% compared with the year before, at constant exchange rates.

Revenues from the oncology division rose by 15% to 14.12 billion dollars (£10.59 billion), therefore making up nearly half of the group’s entire sales.

Oncology incorporates the diagnosis and treatment of cancer and AztraZeneca sells drugs like Tagrisso and Imfinzi which are medicines used to treat certain cancers.

AstraZeneca reported strong growth in demand for both medicines over the first half of the year, with the majority of sales coming from the US.

Revenues from the rare diseases division, which makes up 16% of total sales, jumped by 11% year on year at constant exchange rates.

This helped to offset an 11% drop in sales of Farxiga, a medicine used to treat kidney disease, heart failure and type 2 diabetes.

AstraZeneca is expecting its revenues to increase by around 5% to 9% over the full year.

It also pointed to an increasing number of drug trials and patients in those trials, as well as investment into transformative technologies in recent months.

Chief executive Pascal Soriot said: “We continue to invest at pace in our transformative technologies and in our commercial execution to bring our innovative medicines to patients around the globe and drive growth beyond 2030.”

AstraZeneca, which has its shares listed on the London Stock Exchange, sells medicines in more than 125 countries which are used by millions of patients worldwide.

Derren Nathan, head of equity research for Hargreaves Lansdown, said: “Encouragingly, improving margins aren’t coming at the expense of investment in the company’s future growth engine, with underlying R&D (research and development) spending ticking up another 5% to 3.7 billion US dollars (£2.8 billion) – a healthy 24% of revenues.

“Clinical failures are part and parcel of drug development, but 30 approvals in major regions since the full-year results are an impressive number and suggest AstraZeneca’s research pipeline still has a strong heartbeat.”