AstraZeneca units daring income goal as CEO goals to double gross sales to $80 billion by 2030

The company, which generated $45.8 billion in revenue last year, will launch 20 new medicines by the end of the decade to meet the new total revenue target, Astra said Tuesday. That’s an increase from previous estimates of only 15 given by the company. Many of the drugs will generate more than $5 billion annually, Soriot said in a statement.

The revenue goal is as expected, according to Jefferies analyst Peter Welford. The key to hitting it will be the pipeline assets that until now haven’t been viewed as major revenue-generators, he said in a note to clients.

The shares rose as much as 1.4% in early London trading Tuesday, close to their record high.

Astra set the target ahead of an investor day — its first in 10 years — as Soriot looks to set the company apart in the highly competitive cancer-medicine market. Drugmakers are racing to replace traditional chemotherapy with products that more precisely target cancer cells. 

The last investor day took place in 2014, in the wake of Pfizer Inc.’s attempted takeover of the British company, when Soriot was two years into the job and had yet to prove himself. At the time, he pledged to raise annual revenue to more than $45 billion by 2023, a target Astra met thanks to its focus on cancer drugs such as Tagrisso and Imfinzi. 

Soriot is widely credited with reviving Astra’s fortunes, with the share price increasing by more than 300% since he took charge in 2012, giving it a stock market valuation of nearly £190 billion ($242 billion).

The company has since expanded to antibody-drug conjugates including Enhertu, a new class of drugs that deliver high medicine doses directly to tumors while minimizing damage to surrounding tissues.

Astra is also pushing into radiopharmaceuticals, which promise even more precision. Earlier this year it agreed to buy Fusion Pharmaceuticals Inc. for as much as $2.4 billion.

Astra expects to see double-digit growth in the oncology division, chief financial officer Aradhana Sarin said in an interview on Bloomberg TV Tuesday. The unit currently contributes 40% of total sales, she said.

Part of Soriot’s efforts in recent years has been to secure a global manufacturing footprint, including for its cancer drugs. Astra said on Monday it plans to build a $1.5 billion manufacturing facility in Singapore to make antibody-drug conjugates. The company is also pumping £450 million into research and the development of vaccines at a facility near Liverpool in the UK.