AstraZeneca shares fall for a second day over CEO uncertainty
BY Reuters
— 3:44 AM ET 07/14/2017
LONDON, July 14 (Reuters) - Shares in AstraZeneca ( AZN ) fell for a second day on Friday as uncertainty over the future of Chief Executive Pascal Soriot weighed on the Anglo-Swedish company ahead of a crucial period.
Shares in Astra closed down 3.5 percent on Thursday and were trading down a further 2.5 percent on Friday, at a two-month low, following an Israeli report late on Wednesday that Soriot was in talks to join Teva Pharmaceutical Industries ( TEVA ).
Moving to a generics drugmaker, albeit the world's largest, would be a big change in direction for French-born Soriot, 58, who had made research-based pharma his whole aim at AstraZeneca ( AZN ).
The timing of the rumour has alarmed investors, coming as the company waits for an all-important data from a MYSTIC trial of a lung cancer drug which is seen as a game-changer for Astra.
Analysts at Leerink, an investment bank that specialises in healthcare, said the move would come as a major surprise, if true, and leave AstraZeneca ( AZN ) rudderless at a key time.
"If true, the optics around his departure would be terrible ahead of the MYSTIC readout ... which are expected any day now."
No one at AstraZeneca ( AZN) was immediately available to comment.
(Reporting by Kate Holton, editing by David Evans)