AstraZeneca (LON:AZN) Follows Up its COVID-19 Progress to Take on an Even Bigger Killer

It's only been a couple of days since we last talked about AstraZeneca (LON: AZN), but some recently-emerged news around the company makes it worth another look. Our last examination of the stock led us to consider it a buy on the strength of its resiliency in stock price, but now we have another reason: diversity of product line.

Fighting a War Against Disease on Several Fronts

While AstraZeneca has made some crucial progress against COVID-19, there are other diseases out there too, including some that make COVID-19 look like a walk in the park by comparison. While COVID-19 has so far killed around 634,000 people, another disease—chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)—kills an average of around five times that number every year worldwide. It's actually the third-leading cause of death in the world.

COPD, for those not familiar, is an umbrella term of sorts, a chronic lung-focused disease that includes emphysema, chronic bronchitis, or both together. Since it's chronic and progressive, the symptoms can get worse over time and eventually lead to death. Currently, one in 17 American adults have COPD, and more may actually have it but simply not be aware.

That's where AstraZeneca comes in. Its latest development to fight COPD, Breztri Aerosphere, just landed approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to serve as a maintenance treatment in those with COPD. This allows AstraZeneca to better compete with other drugmakers, especially GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE: GSK), whose Trelegy Ellipta drug has made impressive headway in combating COPD.

AstraZeneca's Breztri Aerosphere, meanwhile, is poised to step in on the world stage; it's already received approval in both China and Japan, and the European Union has taken it under regulatory review already, a move that should give it access to a major portion of the market.

Adding to AstraZeneca's Roster of Successes

The late-stage trials conducted on Breztri Aerosphere, meanwhile, revealed that it reduced risks of so-called “flare-ups” by between 13% and 24%  as compared to the normal run of two-drug inhaler packages. Better still, it slashed the risk of death from all causes related to COPD nearly in half, at 46%. AstraZeneca has had great success with its lineup of respiratory drugs lately; just last year, sales were up 10% over the previous year, and its oncology drug lineup gained 44% over the same time frame.

That's actually where things get especially interesting for AstraZeneca. While the company's got a new COVID-19 vaccine in the works that should prove popular, it's the rest of the company's product line that should be a particular attention-getter for investors. Producing a coronavirus treatment all but guarantees a customer in the US government, as it's already demonstrated with the new vaccines from Moderna (NASDAQ: MRNA) and Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) / BioNTex (NASDAQ: BNTX) as well.

Ready for the Future

Just in the first quarter of 2020, reports note, AstraZeneca had fully seven different products with double-digit sales growth. “Double-digit” is pretty good in isolation, especially these days, where company stock prices are gaining on the news of losses that were lower than analysts expected. But AstraZeneca has not only those seven products, but just over half—four out of the seven—can claim growth of over 50% in year-to-year comparisons. The two biggest leaders on this front were a pair of cancer drugs, Imfinzi and Tagrisso.

Just to top it off, those seven aren't the only big sellers that AstraZeneca has to its credit; the company has several other rapid risers that weren't included in the aforementioned group of seven. One of the biggest newcomers that hasn't cracked the list is Calquence, a drug targeting blood cancer.

While the chances of aggressive growth with AstraZeneca aren't great, this is a company that has demonstrated its ability to hold value for investors and make gains at the same time. That's thanks largely to a lineup of winners that keep producing steadily for the company. Throw in a dividend that's likely to increase, especially with all these new gains, and you've got a company that should be a buy-and-hold for years to come.