Earnings roundup: Biogen’s ‘resiliency,’ AstraZeneca’s growth pitch and GSK’s oncology push

An article from Earnings roundup: Biogen’s ‘resiliency,’ AstraZeneca’s growth pitch and GSK’s oncology push Better-than-expected sales helped Biogen regain the support of investors, while AstraZeneca and GSK worked to convince Wall Street that they can hit ambitious revenue targets. Published July 29, 2026 By BioPharma Dive staff Share Copy link Email LinkedIn X/Twitter Facebook Print License Add us on Google With quarterly earnings underway, BioPharma Dive is providing a snapshot of some companies’ results and how they’re being received by investors. Today, we’re offering insight into the latest numbers from Biogen, AstraZeneca and GSK.

Biogen’s ‘resilient’ quarter Biogen, with its latest earnings report out Wednesday, drummed up more confidence in its product portfolio on Wall Street. The Boston-area biotechnology company reported $2.7 billion in revenue between April and the end of June, a 3% increase from the same period a year prior. Diluted earnings per share were 66 cents under generally accepted accounting principles and $3.60 when adjusted.

In a note to clients, Jefferies analyst Andrew Tsai wrote that analysts, on average, expected revenue to come in at $2.5 billion and non-GAAP EPS at $2.88. Several of Biogen’s flagship products contributed to the beat. Sales of Spinraza, a treatment for an uncommon muscular disorder, were up 7% from the first quarter, to $402 million.

The $381 million Biogen got from royalties tied to Roche’s multiple sclerosis drug Ocrevus were about $21 million above analyst forecasts. And Biogen’s broader MS franchise, though pressured by competition from copycat drugs, still delivered $963 million on the quarter. The business “continues to be more resilient than expectations,” wrote RBC Capital Markets analyst Brian Abrahams.

Newer additions to the portfolio impressed as well. Sales of Skyclarys, a rare disease medicine Biogen picked up through its $7.3 billion purchase of Reata Pharmaceuticals, rose to $168 million, topping consensus estimates of $157 million. Biogen also recorded $30 million and $97 million, respectively, from two drugs from the recent acquisition of Apellis Pharmaceuticals.

Both of those figures exceeded analyst predictions, according to Tsai, who added that the earnings in full showcase “resiliency” in Biogen’s base business. Leqembi, the closely watched medicine for Alzheimer’s disease that Biogen co-developed with Japan’s Eisai, grew 15% year-over-year to $184 million in global sales. The Food and Drug Administration recently started allowing patients to begin treatment with Leqembi at home, using a form of the medicine given as an under-the-skin shot.

The latest Leqembi figures “could help instill confidence” that this new launch “will be coming off of a solid base and could catalyze a pickup in sales in the near to medium term, helping to reclaim market share,” Abrahams wrote. In its report, Biogen updated its full-year guidance. It now expects revenue to increase by a mid-single-digit percentage, and non-GAAP EPS to settle somewhere between $12 and $13.

That’s down from the previous range of $15.85 to $16.85, in good part because of dilution and research costs from the Apellis deal. Biogen shares were up almost 5%, to trade just over $215 apiece, by late Wednesday morning. — Jacob Bell AstraZeneca’s growth pitch Up until recently, AstraZeneca had been on the kind of extended tear that separated it from many large pharmaceutical peers.

A series of successes in cancer and other areas of drug research has helped the company more than double its yearly earnings between 2015 and 2025. Executives think the company can reach even higher and hit $80 billion in sales by 2030, nearly $21 billion more than AstraZeneca pulled in last year. “We have the science, we have the pipeline, and we have the team to make that happen,” CEO Pascal Soriot assured analysts and investors on a Monday conference call.

Wall Street has reason to be nervous, though. Etcamah, a breast cancer drug important to AstraZeneca’s future, has been delayed in the U.S. The company also suffered a major setback earlier this month when eplontersen, a drug it’s been counting on, fell short in a big study in a deadly heart condition.

That trial was widely expected to succeed and executives were accordingly optimistic. Its failure was therefore seen as a “credibility loss” given management’s confidence level, one analyst wrote at the time. Company shares have fallen more than 10% since.

Still, executives are confident AstraZeneca will hit its target. The $80 billion figure is “risk-adjusted,” Soriot said, adding that AstraZeneca would “far surpass” that total if "everything worked.” Etcamah, the cancer drug Datroway and newly approved blood pressure medication Baxfendy could all peak at more than $5 billion in annual sales. AstraZeneca now believes a respiratory disease drug currently known as tozorakimab could hit that mark, too, following positive results that surprised analysts earlier this year.

Its earnings presentation listed a smattering of weight loss and oncology programs as having $5 billion-plus sales potential, too. All should produce pivotal results before 2030. To Soriot, those coming readouts suggest the company doesn’t need to do more deals to meet its mark.

There may be other setbacks, but AstraZeneca is planning as if its success rate in Phase 3 will be at or below the industry average, even though the company’s performance has “consistently” been higher, he said. “The likelihood that there will be puts and takes is part of how we plan,” Soriot added. “We've taken this into account.” — Ben Fidler GSK’s oncology push Best known for its HIV drugs, respiratory disease medicines and vaccines, GSK has for years worked to build an oncology business, too.

That effort is now the centerpiece of an “accelerate growth” plan, through which GSK aims to reach £40 billion in annual revenues by 2031 — even as key patents fortifying its HIV products expire. Dealmaking has helped the British pharma acquire cancer drugs like Jemperli, Zejula and Blenrep. But that business only brought in £600 million in the second quarter and £2 billion in 2025, a small fraction of GSK’s overall revenue and much lower than what the sector’s major oncology players report.

In an earnings presentation Tuesday, though, the company spotlighted its next wave of oncology drugs as critical revenue drivers in the years ahead. Its confidence is derived from “their differentiation and potential benefit to patients,” Chief Scientific Officer Tony Wood told analysts on a conference call. Chief among those prospects are two antibody-drug conjugates licensed from China-based biotech Hansoh Pharmaceutical.

Known as “riz-rez” and “mo-rez,” respectively, both have rapidly advanced through clinical development, and riz-rez has now succeeded in two Phase 3 trials in China. Global studies for both are underway. GSK also has high hopes for a pair of lung cancer drugs it acquired through a nearly $11 billion acquisition of Nuvalent in June.

One, named Jideytro, won approval from U.S. regulators earlier this month. Another, dubbed neladalkib, is currently under regulatory review, with a decision expected this November.

Both are also in testing in first-line lung cancer, and have already shown “best-in-class efficacy profiles,” Hesham Abdullah, GSK’s global head of oncology R&D, said on Tuesday’s call. GSK claimed to have the capacity for additional dealmaking, too, with CSO Wood noting that the company wants to boost its mid-stage drug pipeline with medicines that “address efficacy or tolerability gaps.” But the key message to investors was that GSK “increasingly views oncology as a major future growth pillar, supported by a rapidly expanding pipeline rather than reliance on a small number of products,” wrote Jefferies analyst Michael Leuchten, in a client note. — Delilah Alvarado Add us on Google Share Copy link Email LinkedIn X/Twitter Facebook Print License Filed Under: Pharma, Marketing