UK's biggest drugmakers see surprise profit bump, even as pharma grapples with U.S. policies

Pharma giants AstraZeneca and GSK, the U.K.'s second and ninth most valuable companies, both saw first-quarter profits beat expectations early Wednesday.

AstraZeneca's core earnings per share came in at $2.58, while analysts polled by FactSet had expected $2.53. GSK's core EPS was £0.47 ($0.63) versus the expected £0.43, as per FactSet.

It comes as an increasing number of pharma CEOs have warned that Europe could see fewer new drugs launched amid a push by U.S. President Donald Trump to lower prices for medicines in America — unless Europe addresses some of the continent's most pressing issues impacting competitiveness.

The CEOs of Novartis, AstraZeneca, Roche, and Boehringer Ingelheim have said that European countries risk missing out on novel medicines, if prices in the lucrative U.S. market are tied to lower prices in comparable countries in Trump's most-favored-nation (MFN) drug pricing policy.

Novartis CEO Vas Narasimhan told CNBC on Tuesday that the "reality of MFN" hadn't kicked in yet, but that it will start having an impact in the next 18 months. 

As AstraZeneca reported earnings on Wednesday, CEO Pascal Soriot flagged a "catalyst-rich" period for the Anglo-Swedish company he has led since 2012. In April, the company said a late-stage trial for a combination treatment with cancer drug Imfinzi demonstrated meaningful improvement in the time before patients with liver cancer worsened.

In late March, it surprised investors with a positive readout from an experimental lung disease medicine that met its target in two late-stage clinical trials, after rivals developing similar treatments had failed. 

AstraZeneca is on track to achieve its ambition of reaching $80 billion in revenue by 2030, Soriot said. In the first quarter, revenue came in at $15.3 billion, up 8% year-on-year and beating expectations of $14.9 billion, according to FactSet.

GSK posted revenue in line with expectations of £7.63 billion ($10.3 billion), up 5% year-on-year.

Both Astra and GSK stocks have far outperformed the Stoxx 600 and FTSE 100 over the past 12 months, with GSK up 42% and AstraZeneca up 30%. That compares to Stoxx 600's 15% rise and FTSE 100's 22% jump over the same period.