By Mark Maurer
AstraZeneca is inching closer to its goal of reporting $80 billion in revenue by 2030 as the U.K. drugmaker pushes further into the U.S. and develops new oncology, rare disease and weight-loss drugs.
The pharmaceutical giant has made progress on a pipeline of more than 25 medicines, each expected to generate more than $1 billion in revenue by the close of the decade, Chief Financial Officer Aradhana Sarin said. AstraZeneca hopes those drugs, along with new U.S. manufacturing investments and a direct listing of its shares in New York, will fuel growth.
Revenue has been on the upswing since the company set its $80 billion target in 2024, with 2025 coming in at $58.74 billion. That was up from $45.81 billion in 2023, the year before it set the 2030 target.
"We wanted to set our sights on the next big audacious goal," Sarin said in an interview. "I think we have created enough confidence in the market that we are very much on track."
When AstraZeneca set the revenue goal in 2024, it said it planned to develop 20 new medicines over the six-year period. The drugmaker said it achieved positive results in 16 out of 20 Phase 3 studies last year.
AstraZeneca's coming slate of drugs includes oncology and rare disease treatments, as well as weight-management therapies. Some next-generation oncology medicines face hurdles, in part because they are in newer, unproven drug categories where existing clinical and competitive data is limited, said Michael Leuchten, a senior pharmaceuticals analyst at Jefferies. "The next-generation oncology assets are where the risk profile is a little bit higher than elsewhere, compared to the past," Leuchten said.
AstraZeneca, meanwhile, is trying to gain ground in the highly competitive market for GLP-1 weight loss drugs. The company is hoping to be the second to market with an oral GLP-1 small molecule, behind Eli Lilly, Sarin said.
AstraZeneca's differentiator on GLP-1s will be developing fixed-dose combinations, a single pill that treats both weight management and a comorbidity like hypertension, she said.
"The GLP-1 space is definitely competitive, but we are already making a push," Sarin said.
The company is aggressively trying to shorten the typical eight to nine years it takes to get a discovered drug to market. To do so, it is using artificial intelligence in drug discovery and participating in a pilot program with the Food and Drug Administration for real-time data sharing, she said.
To maximize revenue, the company begins sales training 12 months before a drug receives approval, Sarin said. The company is deploying AI to help salespeople better target physicians and patients, among other uses elsewhere in the business.
AstraZeneca invested about $14.2 billion to $14.6 billion on research and development in 2025, or roughly 24% of its revenue, a move to continually feed its pipeline. Massive R&D spending is key, analysts say.
"You will not find a pharma company that can shrink itself to greatness, " Leuchten said. "That just doesn't work. AstraZeneca is pretty good at figuring out where and how to spend the money, but once in a while, there's the question: Are they overspending on R&D? Should the margin be higher?"
The company also makes so-called at risk capital investments before clinical trials are fully proven, ensuring they have the immediate manufacturing capacity to supply the market as soon as a drug is approved.
One recent example of these investments is a $1.5 billion manufacturing facility in Singapore, which is set to begin operating in 2029. AstraZeneca moved forward with the project because it had seven antibody drug conjugates in development, there was a lack of external contract manufacturing capacity for these drugs, and the company was able to secure risk-sharing incentives from the Singapore government, Sarin said.
"A lot of the investment in capex is at risk, because you don't know whether a study will be positive or negative, but you do have to invest at risk to make sure if it is positive, you have enough production volume to actually supply in the commercial market," Sarin said.
"Those are tough calls," she added.
The company is also making moves to secure the capital and investor base needed to aggressively expand its U.S. presence, part of its efforts to lift revenue.
AstraZeneca in February listed its shares directly on the New York Stock Exchange, alongside its existing listings in the U.K. and Sweden. Before the direct listing in the U.S., American depositary receipts for AstraZeneca traded on the Nasdaq. The company last year said it would invest $50 billion in the U.S. by 2030.
Those moves are aimed at helping the company generate 50% of its revenue from the U.S. by then, up from 43%, Sarin said.
"In the U.S., we do have a lot of long-term institutional investors that appreciate the long vision," Sarin said.
Write to Mark Maurer at mark.maurer@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 11, 2026 05:30 ET (09:30 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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