BIG PHARMA EARNINGS WATCH: ASTRAZENECA AND NOVARTIS

Big Pharma Giants Report Strong Earnings Beating Analysts’ Expectations Following Continued Price Hikes

This week, Big Pharma companies AstraZeneca and Novartis saw first quarter earnings that exceeded Wall Street analysts’ expectations — after both engaged in price hikes on brand name drugs in their portfolios in January.

Novartis has a long history of gaming the patent system to delay generic competition to Entresto—and executives for the brand name drug company defended their patent abuse tactics during their fourth quarter earnings call in February. 

During Novartis’ earnings call, an analyst at Bank of America posed a question regarding the potential for a generic competition to blockbuster heart failure drug Entresto being delayed to 2026. Vasant Narasimhan, CEO of Novartis, discussed the Big Pharma giant’s ongoing litigation strategy designed to maintain monopoly pricing.

Get the full recap of AstraZeneca and Novartis’ massive earnings fueled by price hikes and patent abuse:

AstraZeneca

• AstraZeneca topped Wall Street analysts’ expectations.  
• AstraZeneca reported total revenue up by 10 percent to $13.58 million, driven by growth in its oncology and biopharmaceutical divisions.
• The company’s diabetes drug Farxiga saw sales increase by eleven percent to $2.06 billion.
• In Q1, the Big Pharma giant’s top business unit, oncology, brought in $5.64 billion, with high demand for lung cancer drug Tagrisso and treatment Imfinzi.

Novartis

• Novartis saw better-than-expected first quarter sales.
• The Big Pharma company reported sales of $13.2 billion in the quarter, beating analysts’ expectations of $13.12 billion.
• The Big Pharma giant’s best-selling drug, Entresto, brought in $2.6 billion, fueling the company’s strong performance.
• The company’s breast cancer drug, Kisqali, saw sales surging 52 percent to $956 million.
• Due to their strong Q1 performance, Novartis is upgrading its profit guidance to start the year.

The strong earnings reports from these three Big Pharma giants follow their consistent strategy of hiking prices on blockbuster drugs across each company’s portfolios. 

AstraZeneca

• AstraZeneca has hiked prices on 19 prescription drugs so far in 2025, including diabetes drug Farxiga by three percent and Lokelma by five percent.
• AstraZeneca increased prices on 17 prescription drugs to start off 2024, including oncology drugs Tagrisso and Lynparza by three percent each.
• AstraZeneca hiked prices on at least 25 prescription drugs in 2023, including best-selling oncology drugs Tagrisso by three percent and Lynparza by 6.8 percent.

Novartis

• This year, Novartis has increased prices on 53 prescription drugs, including Entresto by 2.5 percent and Kesimpta by seven percent.
• Novartis increased prices on 72 prescription drugs in its portfolio in 2024, including arthritis treatment Cosentyx by seven percent and heart treatment Entresto by three percent.
• In 2023, Novartis hiked prices on more than 70 prescription drugs in its portfolio, including Entresto by five percent and Kesimpta by seven percent.

Read more on Q1 earnings from Johnson & Johnson HERE.

Read more on Q1 earnings from AbbVie, Roche, Gilead, Merck and Bristol Myers Squibb HERE.

Stay tuned as we continue to monitor first quarter earnings calls from brand name drug companies in the coming weeks.

Learn more about solutions to lower prescription drug prices and hold Big Pharma accountable HERE.