Woodford set for gains as AstraZeneca jumps on drug approval

Income stars such as Neil Woodford and Bill Mott are set for boosts to their portfolios as AstraZeneca jumped over 3% this morning following the approval of a drug the pharma giant pinned $2bn of future sales.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the sale of Brilinta, a blood thinning drug used to reduce the risk of heart attack, giving a lift to Astra's share price. Shares rose as much as 3.5% when the FSTE 100 opened before losing a few points to settle around a 3.4% gain. The share price was £31.36 at around 8.28am, while the 52-week high is £33.89. Jeremy Batstone-Carr, an analyst at Charles Stanley, said Brilinta is forecast to deliver peak sales of $2bn over the next eight years with $750m derived from the US so the FDA approval was key for Astra's future earnings, parti...