Astellas Pharma's results for the three months to June 30 show a company running well ahead of its own annual targets: revenue rose 26.7% to ¥640.9bn, core operating profit jumped 55.6% to ¥221.4bn, and core operating margin climbed 6.4 percentage points to 34.5%. Net profit attributable to shareholders more than doubled, up 107.3% to ¥141.8bn.
The growth was not evenly spread. XTANDI, the prostate cancer drug that remains Astellas's largest product, grew a comparatively modest 18.7% to ¥276.6bn. The faster expansion came from the newer "key strategic products": PADCEV (urothelial cancer) rose 36.0% to ¥75.5bn on wider use in early-stage bladder cancer treatment in the US, IZERVAY (an eye disease drug) rose 70.3% to ¥27.2bn, VYLOY (gastric cancer) rose 50.7% to ¥21.1bn on broader use of Claudin 18 testing, VEOZAH (menopause symptoms) rose 54.8% to ¥14.9bn, and XOSPATA (leukemia) rose 27.3% to ¥21.6bn. Together those five products rose 43.2% to ¥160.3bn.
| Product | Prior-year quarter | Latest quarter | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| XTANDI | ¥233.0bn | ¥276.6bn | +18.7% |
| PADCEV | ¥55.5bn | ¥75.5bn | +36.0% |
| IZERVAY | ¥15.9bn | ¥27.2bn | +70.3% |
| VYLOY | ¥14.0bn | ¥21.1bn | +50.7% |
| VEOZAH | ¥9.6bn | ¥14.9bn | +54.8% |
| XOSPATA | ¥17.0bn | ¥21.6bn | +27.3% |
Currency did real work here too. The yen averaged ¥159 to the dollar and ¥185 to the euro during the quarter, down from ¥145 and ¥164 a year earlier, adding ¥60.0bn to revenue and ¥25.5bn to core operating profit. Reported selling and administrative costs rose 9.2%, but stripping out currency and US co-promotion costs for XTANDI, the underlying increase was just 0.1%, meaning the cost discipline Astellas has been chasing under its Sustainable Margin Transformation programme is largely intact even as the yen flatters the top line. Research and development spending rose 14.0% to ¥81.7bn, reflecting new patient enrollment in Phase 3 trials for setidegrasib and ASP2138 alongside continued lifecycle work on PADCEV and VYLOY.
Despite outrunning its own pace for three straight profit lines, Astellas kept its full-year forecast unchanged: revenue of ¥2,220.0bn (+3.8%), operating profit of ¥395.0bn (+3.2%) and core operating profit of ¥620.0bn (+11.6%). The one change was to the dividend, where the annual forecast rose to ¥80.00 per share from ¥78.00 paid last year. Management's own presentation flags that development spending is set to increase from the second quarter onward as more late-stage trials begin enrolling, a signal that this quarter's momentum is not simply carried forward into the rest of the year.