AstraZeneca’s sales tumbled 21 percent in the second quarter, punished by generic competition to its best-selling antipsychotic medicine Seroquel and pressure on health spending in Europe. Continued supply chain disruptions triggered by problems with a new IT system at a plant in Sweden added to the group’s woes and the shares fell 1.8 percent by 04.30 a.m. EDT in a flat market for European drug stocks. With patent losses rapidly eroding revenue and few new drugs to replace them, Britain’s second-biggest drugmaker is throwing itself into deal-making to bolster the pipeline, following the early exit of its chief executive at the end of May.
