AstraZeneca CEO teases weight-loss drug candidate as profit meets target

By Steve Goldstein

AstraZeneca announced forecast-beating revenue on Tuesday.

AstraZeneca's chief executive on Tuesday teased the prospect of a weight-loss drug in development that the company moved into late-stage trials.

The company said it's starting a Phase III program on the oral drug elecoglipron after it said obese or overweight participants with at least one comorbidity met the primary endpoint in a Phase IIb trial.

"The only thing I would say is that we have a very competitive profile," said CEO Pascal Soriot in a press conference with reporters. AstraZeneca plans to release trial results at the American Diabetes Association conference in June.

"We will not unleash all of those investments if we didn't believe in the product, so I can only say we have a product, a whole agent, with a competitive profile."

Soriot said the company was focusing on drugs to improve both compliance as well as the quality of weight management, to help patients lose less muscle and more fat.

The drug giant steps into a field that at present is dominated by Eli Lilly (LLY) and Novo Nordisk (NVO). Pfizer (PFE) last week announced trial data from a monthly injectable, a product AstraZeneca also is developing.

AstraZeneca on Tuesday announced fourth-quarter profit in line with expectations on demand for its cancer and heart drugs.

The pharmaceutical company (AZN) (UK:AZN) said its core earnings per share edged up 1% to $2.12 a share as revenue rose 4% to $15.5 billion.

According to FactSet, analysts expected $15.42 billion total revenue and $2.12 in core EPS.

AstraZeneca said it anticipates mid-to-high single-digit percentage growth in total revenue and low double-digit percentage growth in core EPS for 2026.

The company said it plans to announce more than 20 Phase 3 trial readouts this year, that it says has the potential for peak revenue of more than $10 billion.

AstraZeneca also said it's anticipating Food and Drug Administration approval for baxdrostat to treat hard-to-control hypertension in the first half of 2026. It says it's potentially the first new treatment for hypertension in decades.

AstraZeneca's stock rose 2% in London trade. It's bounced 44% from its April lows and is the number-two company by market cap in the U.K., behind only HSBC.

-Steve Goldstein

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02-10-26 0604ET