AstraZeneca targets $80B revenue, 20 new drugs by 2030

AstraZeneca on Tuesday morning unveiled its ambitious plan to be one of the fastest growing pharma companies by the end of the decade.

In what CEO Pascal Soriot described as “a new era of growth,” the UK pharma said it is targeting $80 billion in total revenue by 2030, which is 75% higher than what it raked in last year at $45.8 billion, according to a Monday press release ahead of its Investor Day in Cambridge, UK.

Pascal Soriot

While many of AstraZeneca’s pharma peers have set high expectations for certain top products or near-term sales growth, the British drugmaker’s new declaration is bold in both scope and timeline. To reach its goal, AstraZeneca would have to grow by more than 8% every year over seven years — compared to a 5% to 7% target separately set by GSK and Johnson & Johnson (which would similarly put it at $80 billion by 2030), or a 5% target set by Novartis.

With pandemic-era exceptions, very few drugmakers have managed to bring in $80 billion in pharma sales alone.

In its 2030 mission, AstraZeneca said it will broaden its existing oncology, biopharma and rare disease footprint. It is also looking to launch 20 new drugs by 2030, with certain assets potentially pulling in $5 billion in peak sales. This is on top of “investing in transformative new technologies and platforms,” the company added.

Jefferies analysts said AstraZeneca would have to execute “above-average industry growth” from 2026 onward to reach its goal, considering certain key drugs are facing a patent cliff, such as Farxiga, Lynparza, Tagrisso and Calquence.

As for its ESG footprint, AstraZeneca added it will also “decouple” its carbon emissions from its revenue increase. By 2026, it aims to be carbon zero for scope 1 and 2 emissions, and then its scope 3 emissions would be cut in half by the end of the decade.

As it stands, the company has 90,000 employees around the world, with 13,000 of these in R&D. It has five R&D centers in the US, UK, Sweden and China, with 178 programs in its pipeline.

Editor’s note: This article was updated to say that AstraZeneca made the announcement on Tuesday morning and that it was targeting $80 billion by 2030 and not 2023.