AstraZeneca has reported a 6% increase in total revenues to $30.67 billion (£22.99 billion) for the first six months of 2026, propelled by strong demand for its cancer treatments and rare disease medications.
Oncology division drives growth
Sales from the oncology division rose 15% to $14.12 billion, accounting for nearly half of the group's total revenue. Key cancer drugs Tagrisso and Imfinzi saw robust growth, with the majority of sales coming from the United States.
Rare diseases offset diabetes drug decline
The rare diseases division, representing 16% of total sales, posted an 11% increase year-on-year at constant exchange rates. This helped counterbalance an 11% drop in sales of Farxiga, a medicine for kidney disease, heart failure and type 2 diabetes.
Outlook and investment
AstraZeneca expects full-year revenues to grow by 5% to 9%. The company noted an increasing number of drug trials and patients, along with investment in transformative technologies. 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.”
Analyst comment
Derren Nathan, head of equity research at Hargreaves Lansdown, commented: “Encouragingly, improving margins aren’t coming at the expense of investment in the company’s future growth engine, with underlying R&D 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.”
AstraZeneca, headquartered in Cambridge and listed on the London Stock Exchange, sells medicines in more than 125 countries used by millions of patients worldwide.
