The last time the AstraZeneca chief executive, Pascal Soriot, set long-term sales targets, he was greeted with a chorus of scepticism. It was 2014 and the company was fighting a takeover attempt by Pfizer of the US; Soriot seemed to be engaging in that age-old defence trick of throwing out a large number that he probably would not be around to deliver. A target to boost revenues by three-quarters over nine years looked wildly optimistic – a decade ago, the Anglo-Swedish firm was more laggard than leader in pharma-land.
In the event, of course, the milestone of $45bn was achieved ahead of time, which is why Tuesday’s latest long-term prediction of annual revenues of $80bn (£63bn) by 2030 will be treated as ultra-credible. Soriot is also still in post – and fit enough to do another five years, he said last year – so success or failure should be reasonably clear by the time he finally departs. As it is, growth was 19% in the last quarter, so a fast start is guaranteed.
