Anglo-Swedish drug maker AstraZenecareported a 12 per cent rise in first quarter profits today but growth was held back by stagnating demand for ulcer pill Losec.
Pre-tax profits totalled $1.11 billion, just ahead of forecasts. Profits a year earlier totalled $1.02 billion, excluding the agrochemicals business spun off last November.
Sales grew by seven per cent at constant exchange rates to $3.99 billion.
Sales off Losec - the world's top-selling prescription medicine - fell to $1.495 billion from $1.588 billion a year earlier.
But AstraZeneca said it was encouraged by take-up of its latest anti-ulcer product, Nexium, which was launched in the key US market in mid-March, too late to impact the first quarter results.
AstraZeneca shares have outperformed the European drugs sector by five percent in the past 12 months on hopes that five new megabrands - of which Nexium is the first - will fill the gap left by the demise of Losec, which is facing patent expiry in major markets.
