UK drugmaker AstraZeneca ramps up dividend – Occasions of India

LONDON: British medication group AstraZeneca hiked it on thursday shareholders dividend citing optimism over its sturdy efficiency,
AstraZeneca “intends to extend the annualized dividend” by seven p.c to $3.10 per share, in a transfer which was “underlining the corporate’s confidence in its efficiency and money era”, it stated in a press release forward of its annual basic assembly in London.
The information despatched the corporate’s share value multiple p.c increased in mid-morning offers on the British capital’s falling inventory market.
Astra board chairman Michel Demare added that the hike was “in keeping with our progressive dividend coverage, which stays unchanged, and displays the persevering with power of AstraZeneca’s funding proposition for shareholders”.
Thursday’s information comes after the group revealed in February that internet revenue virtually doubled to $6 billion final 12 months, with a powerful most cancers division serving to offset a wipeout for gross sales of Covid therapies.
Income rose three p.c to almost $46 billion in 2023 in comparison with a 12 months earlier, although gross sales of Covid therapies slumped greater than $3.7 billion. Its oncology unit’s gross sales jumped 23 p.c.
AstraZeneca final month agreed to purchase US biopharma agency Fusion for as much as $2.4 billion, in its newest growth into most cancers therapies.
Fusion is growing next-generation radiotherapy to deal with most cancers by way of exact concentrating on that minimizes harm to wholesome cells. Its methodology additionally allows entry to tumors which might be arduous to succeed in utilizing commonplace radiation.