AstraZeneca Spotlights 2025 Growth, 2026 Launch Wave and $80B 2030 Goal at JPM Conference

AstraZeneca (NASDAQ:AZN) used its presentation at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference to highlight strong 2025 performance, a growing late-stage pipeline, and management’s confidence in sustaining momentum through 2026 and toward its stated $80 billion revenue ambition for 2030.

2025 performance and near-term outlook

Chief Financial Officer Aradhana Sarin said AstraZeneca delivered “very strong commercial performance” over the first nine months of 2025, with total revenue up 11% and core EPS up 15%.

By therapy area, Sarin said oncology revenue grew 16%, while biopharmaceuticals rose 8% and rare disease increased 6%. She said growth from newer medicines more than offset the impact from loss of exclusivity for a limited number of mature brands, including Brilinta, Pulmicort, and Soliris.

Regionally, Sarin pointed to 11% growth in the U.S. and 21% growth in emerging markets outside China. She reiterated the company’s four-year guidance for total revenue to increase by high single digits and core EPS to grow by low double-digit percentages at constant exchange rates.

However, Sarin also cautioned about fourth-quarter headwinds tied to volume-based procurement (VBP) and year-end hospital order dynamics in China, as well as the timing of tenders in certain emerging markets. She also noted that year-over-year comparisons would be affected by more than $800 million in sales-based milestones recorded in collaboration revenue in the fourth quarter of 2024. AstraZeneca plans to report full-year results on Feb. 10.

Pipeline execution and 2026 launch preparations

Sarin described 2025 as a “catalyst-rich year” and said the company delivered 16 positive Phase 3 readouts since its fiscal 2024 results. She also said readouts across 2025 collectively represented peak revenue opportunities of more than $10 billion.

Late in 2025, she highlighted FDA approvals for Imfinzi in perioperative gastric cancer and Enhertu in first-line HER2-positive breast cancer. She also said the FDA accepted baxdrostat for priority review in hypertension.

Looking ahead, Sarin said AstraZeneca expects to launch several new medicines in 2026, including baxdrostat, camizestrant, and garadacimab, all of which she said are under regulatory review.

R&D discipline, rising late-stage scale, and AI initiatives

Sarin emphasized AstraZeneca’s governance framework for R&D, stating that budget is not pre-allocated by therapy area and that projects are ranked collectively using a decision-making model intended to support targeted, science-driven risk-taking.

She said AstraZeneca anticipates full-year 2026 R&D costs toward the upper end of the low-20% range of total revenue. That spending level is intended to support “104 Phase 3 studies” that are ongoing. She added that patient enrollment is increasing, with a “large step-up anticipated in 2026,” driven by investment in cardiovascular, renal, and metabolism (CVRM) outcome studies.

On the company’s use of artificial intelligence, Sarin cited two examples: IDA, an agentic system for synthetic drug process development that she said could reduce time-to-commercial scale-up in synthetic manufacturing by up to 50%, and QCS (Quantitative Continuous Scoring), which uses computational pathology to help identify patients most likely to respond to treatment and is being applied across the antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) pipeline. She also announced the acquisition of Modela AI, which she said could advance AstraZeneca’s pathology foundation models.

Key pipeline highlights across CVRM, oncology, and hematology

In CVRM, Sarin highlighted AZD0780, an oral PCSK9 inhibitor for dyslipidemia. She said a Phase 2b trial showed greater than 50% LDL-C reduction on top of statins, with first pivotal Phase 3 readouts expected in 2027 from the AZURE-LDL and AZURE-HeFH trials. In weight management, she said three programs—azelaprag (an oral GLP-1, formerly known as 5004), AZD6234 (a selective amylin receptor agonist), and AZD9550 (a GLP-1 glucagon)—are expected to report first Phase 2 data this year, with a plan to move rapidly into broad Phase 3 trials in 2026 if competitive profiles are demonstrated.

On baxdrostat, Sarin described the drug as a potential best-in-class aldosterone synthase inhibitor for uncontrolled and resistant hypertension and cited data from the BaxHTN and BaxCS24 Phase 3 trials. She said AstraZeneca anticipates a PDUFA date in the second quarter of this year and expects initial uptake among specialists followed by broader primary care adoption.

In oncology, Dave Fredrickson, EVP of Oncology, said AstraZeneca has multiple growth engines for Imfinzi, citing GI cancers, bladder cancer, and small cell lung cancer, and reiterated the product’s strength in the Stage III unresectable PACIFIC setting. He said Imfinzi “will likely be our largest oncology medicine in the midterm period,” pointing to additional opportunities including the potential for Imfinzi plus Imjudo in Stage IV lung cancer and growth drivers such as Emerald 3 and volrustomig.

Sarin said AstraZeneca has eight wholly owned ADCs in the clinic, with the potential to address around 80% of the patient population in its focused solid tumor areas. She said the company anticipates the first pivotal data in the first half of this year for Soni V, its Claudin 18.2 ADC, in second-line gastric cancer.

In hematology and cell therapy, Sarin highlighted AZD0120, a dual CD19/BCMA CAR-T therapy, citing Phase 1b data presented at ASH showing a 78% complete response rate in late-line multiple myeloma patients and 80% complete response in those previously treated with a BCMA CAR-T, along with no Grade 3 or higher cytokine release syndrome or delayed neurotoxicity. Phase 3 trials in multiple myeloma are planned to start this year, and the company is also exploring Phase 1 trials in systemic lupus erythematosus, myasthenia gravis, and light chain amyloidosis.

2030 ambition, policy considerations, and 2026 catalysts

Management reiterated confidence in the company’s $80 billion revenue ambition for 2030, which Sarin said was risk-adjusted when introduced in May 2024. In the Q&A, she noted that AstraZeneca’s 2030 consensus estimates moved from $67 billion at the time of the target’s introduction to about $80 billion more recently.

Fredrickson added that within oncology, he views AZD0120 and the PD-1/TIGIT bispecific rilvegostomig as “underappreciated,” and said the company remains enthusiastic about camizestrant and its ADC platform. He also discussed ongoing work on Tagrisso lifecycle management through combinations, citing a shift in community interest toward combinations following overall survival data from FLAURA2.

On U.S. policy, Sarin addressed the company’s Most Favored Nation (MFN) agreement, saying the phased approach is expected to start with Medicaid and that the 2026 impact would be within a defined Medicaid population, which she said represents low single digits of global sales for AstraZeneca. She said the company expects to incorporate MFN into guidance provided at the beginning of the year.

For 2026 catalysts, Sarin highlighted multiple anticipated Phase 3 readouts across therapy areas, including datopotamab deruxtecan in non-small cell lung cancer, additional Imfinzi data in bladder cancer and early HCC, camizestrant in first-line hormone receptor-positive breast cancer, Wainua in ATTR cardiomyopathy, the COPD program for IL-33 biologic tozorakimab, and rare-disease readouts including Ultomiris indication expansion opportunities and asfotase alfa in hypophosphatasia.

Sarin also framed confidence beyond 2030, arguing that several programs expected to read out in the late 2020s may contribute more meaningfully after 2030 rather than before it, which she said supports continued high investment in R&D.

About AstraZeneca (NASDAQ:AZN)

AstraZeneca is a global, science-led biopharmaceutical company headquartered in Cambridge, England. Formed through the 1999 merger of Sweden’s Astra AB and the UK’s Zeneca Group, the company researches, develops, manufactures and commercializes prescription medicines across a range of therapeutic areas. AstraZeneca’s operations span research and development, large-scale manufacturing, and commercial distribution, with a presence in developed and emerging markets worldwide.

The company focuses on several core therapy areas including oncology, cardiovascular, renal and metabolism (CVRM), respiratory and immunology, and rare diseases.