Over the past decade, AstraZeneca AZN has built a broad oncology franchise spanning multiple cancer types, including lung, breast, blood, gastrointestinal and genitourinary cancers. The segment contributes roughly 44% of total product sales and continues to be the company’s primary growth driver.
AstraZeneca’s oncology sales were $6.8 billion in the first quarter of 2026, up 16% at constant exchange rate (CER). The strong oncology performance was driven by robust demand for drugs like Tagrisso, Lynparza, Imfinzi, Calquence and Enhertu (in partnership with Daiichi Sankyo). AstraZeneca has a profit-sharing deal with Merck MRK for Lynparza.
Key new cancer drugs in AstraZeneca’s portfolio are Truqap for HR-positive, HER2-negative (HR+ HER2-) breast cancer, and Datroway, co-developed with partner Daiichi, also for HR+ HER2- breast cancer and EGFR-mutant non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). These drugs are also contributing to sales growth. Truqap has seen rapid uptake in the U.S. market since launch, with the ex-U.S. market expected to be a key contributor in future quarters. Datroway is seeing strong launch uptake trends.
AstraZeneca is working to strengthen its oncology product portfolio through label expansions of existing products and to advance its oncology pipeline candidates.
A key recent label expansion approval for a marketed drug was Imfinzi’s approval for early-stage gastric and gastroesophageal junction cancers in the United States in November 2025 and in the EU in March 2026.
AstraZeneca arguably possesses one of the deepest late-stage oncology pipelines in the industry. A key pipeline candidate, camizestrant, an oral SERD, is under review in the United States, the EU and some other countries for HR+ HER2- metastatic breast cancer. Important late-stage oncology candidates in AstraZeneca’s pipeline are volrustomig (a next-generation bispecific immunotherapy for lung, gastric and several other cancers), sonesitatug vedotin (advanced or metastatic gastric or GEJ adenocarcinoma), surovatamig (a CD19 CD3 T-cell engager for haematologic malignancies) and rilvegostomig (NSCLC and advanced biliary tract cancer).
AstraZeneca expects continued growth of its oncology medicines in 2026, particularly Tagrisso, Enhertu, Merck-partnered Lynparza, Calquence and Imfinzi. Increasing adoption of Truqap and Datroway and potential approval and launch of camizestrant should also boost oncology growth in 2026.
Overall, the breadth of AstraZeneca’s oncology portfolio also reduces dependence on any single drug, making AstraZeneca one of the best-positioned large-cap oncology companies heading into the second half of the decade.
Competition in the Oncology Space
Other large players in the oncology space are Pfizer PFE, Merck, J&J JNJ and Bristol-Myers.
Pfizer is one of the world’s leading oncology drugmakers, with a strong presence across breast, genitourinary, thoracic, gastrointestinal and hematologic cancers. The addition of Seagen in 2023 also strengthened its position in oncology by adding four ADCs — Adcetris, Padcev, Tukysa and Tivdak. Oncology sales comprise around 27% of its total revenues. Its oncology revenues grew 7% to $3.8 billion in the first quarter of 2026, driven by drugs like Lorbrena, the Braftovi-Mektovi combination and Padcev, which made up for declining sales of drugs like Ibrance.
Pfizer has also ventured into the oncology biosimilars space and markets six biosimilars for cancer. Pfizer is also advancing its oncology clinical pipeline across areas such as breast, thoracic, gastrointestinal and blood cancer.
The Oncology segment comprises around 29% of J&J’s total revenues and 45% of its Innovative Medicine segment sales. Its oncology sales rose 17.8% on an operational basis in the first quarter of 2026, driven by strong market growth and share gains of key products such as Darzalex and prostate cancer drug, Erleada. The sales growth was partially dampened by lower sales of Imbruvica. J&J’s new cancer drugs, Carvykti, Tecvayli, Talvey and Rybrevant/Lazcluze are contributing significantly to top-line growth driven by market share gains.
Merck’s key oncology medicines are PD-L1 inhibitor, Keytruda and PARP inhibitor, Lynparza, which it markets in partnership with AstraZeneca. Keytruda, approved for several types of cancer, alone accounts for around 50% of Merck’s pharmaceutical sales. Keytruda recorded sales of $8 billion in the first quarter of 2026, up 8% year over year.
AZN’s Price Performance, Valuation and Estimates
AZN stock has declined 3.5% so far this year against an increase of 0.5% for the industry.
From a valuation standpoint, AstraZeneca is reasonably valued. Going by the price/earnings ratio, the company’s shares currently trade at 16.41 forward earnings, slightly lower than 17.06 for the industry. The stock is also trading lower than its 5-year mean of 17.50.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2026 earnings has declined from $10.33 per share to $10.26 per share over the past 60 days. For 2027, earnings estimates have declined from $11.61 per share to $11.57 per share over the same timeframe.
AstraZeneca has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).