AstraZeneca Plc achieved strong growth in sales and profitability during the year ended December 2005, on account of improved performance by its top five products. Sales for the full year increased by 11.8 per cent to USD 23,950 million from USD 21,426 million in the previous year and its net profit went up by 28.3 per cent to $4,724 million from $3,683 million. Its product portfolio now has ten products with annual sales of $1 billion or greater. The company has strengthened its product pipeline and four new chemical entities have been entered into phase III development.

The five top products viz., Nexium, Seroaquel, Crestor, Arimidex and Symbicort recorded sales of $10,849 million, up by 27 per cent for the full year. US sales increased by 12 per cent with inventory movements neutral across the year following the successful introduction of distribution service agreements. Operating margins increased by 6 per cent from 21.2 per cent to 27.2 per cent. R&D expenditure declined to $3379 million from $3467 million.

David Brennan, CEO, said, "Strong growth from our key products and further improvements in efficiency has contributed to AstraZeneca's excellent financial performance. The output from our discovery organisation has grown, and new medicines from both our own and external research have entered late sage development, including those from recent licensing transactions. However, we will do more to further strengthen our product pipeline, and this is my number on priority."

Cash generated from operating activities was $6,743 million compared with $4,817 million in 2004. The company declared total dividend of $1.30 per share for the year 2005.