Recovering AstraZeneca shrugs off blow to asthma drug with cancer lift

AstraZeneca on Wednesday revealed a blow from failed clinical trials of a breakthrough asthma treatment, but the UK drug giant immediately attempted to bounce back with a string of other announcements.

The UK pharmaceuticals group said that breakthrough biotech treatment tralokinumab’s failure in the latest trials was “disappointing”, but the bad news was not enough to take the shine off an early US regulator’s approval for blood cancer drug Calquence.

Shares in AstraZeneca rose 82p to 5114p as the pharma group said that it would begin marketing the drug immediately.

Calquence is one of Astra’s key products for the next few years and the US approval is its first for a blood cancer treatment.

Chief executive Pascal Soriot called it “a landmark moment for our company”.

AstraZeneca is poised to get approval for another asthma treatement, benralizumab, in weeks.

Astra acquired Calquence when it bought a majority stake in Acerta Pharma in 2015 for $2.5 billion (£1.9 billion).

But the firm is still recovering from a record share price fall in the summer when cancer treatment Mystic suffered a setback.