AstraZeneca Sees 2016 Profit Dip as Crestor Gets Competition
- 2016 sales to fall by low to mid single-digit percentage
- Best-seller Crestor to lose U.S. market exclusivity in May
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AstraZeneca Plc, the U.K.’s second-largest drugmaker, forecast that profit and sales would decline this year as its best-selling cholesterol medicine loses market exclusivity in the U.S.
Core operating profit per share, which excludes some costs, will fall by a low to mid single-digit percentage from $4.26 last year, London-based AstraZeneca said Thursday in a statement. Analysts were predicting $4.10 a share for 2016, according the average of 26 estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Shares fell to the lowest in two weeks.