AstraZeneca breast cancer drug shows positive results, shares up

Investing.com -- AstraZeneca (NASDAQ:AZN) announced on Wednesday that its experimental breast cancer treatment, camizestrant, helped extend survival without disease progression in patients with an advanced form of the illness during a late-stage clinical trial.

The company’s US-listed shares rose 1% in premarket trading Wednesday.

According to the company’s interim analysis, camizestrant, when combined with a standard treatment designed to block proteins that drive tumor growth, showed a positive impact on progression-free survival as a first-line therapy.

The trial, known as "SERENA-6," evaluated the combination in patients with hormone receptor-positive, HER2-negative advanced breast cancer carrying a specific genetic mutation.

AstraZeneca said the drug’s safety profile remained consistent with what is already known for each medicine, with no new safety concerns identified and very few patients discontinuing treatment.

Analysts project that camizestrant could generate $1.5 billion in sales by 2030.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) analysts estimate a peak sales potential of $6 billion for camizestrant across the SERENA-6 and SERENA-4 trials. They note that SERENA-4 is a first-line (1L) trial requiring success in patients without ESR1 mutations, with data expected in the first half of 2026.

The analysts also caution that results from SERENA-6 may not directly translate to SERENA-4, as SERENA-6 focuses on patients who have already developed ESR1 mutations, while SERENA-4 is strictly a first-line study. However, they view the safety data from SERENA-6 as “supportive” for SERENA-4. 

“As a reminder, SERENA-6 is the first of 7 big Phase III (PIII) reads we flag for the next 18 months, with five game-changing PIII reads,” they added.

BofA analysts view AstraZeneca's current valuation as “attractive,” noting that the company's mid-term guidance suggests a high-single-digit compound annual growth rate (CAGR) in sales.

They believe this outlook supports a potential rerating to 18 times estimated 2026 price-to-earnings (P/E).