Operating profit grew 37% to 1.8 billion USA dollars (£1.3 billion).
Astra shares plunged 15.68 percent in late morning trade to £43.11, pushing London's FTSE 100 index slightly into negative territory.
Chief executive Pascal Soriot said the tie-up would maximise the potential of Lynparza as a "backbone for many combinations".
Roche shares were not yet active in the premarket.
AstraZeneca revealed Thursday its checkpoint inhibitor Imfinzi failed to improve progression-free survival (PFS) in the closely watched MYSTIC study of lung cancer patients, dealing a major blow to the British drugmaker's hopes of catching rivals in immuno-oncology.
It did say that it will continue to test for further primary endpoints for overall survival for Imfinzi, or durvalumab, both in monotherapy and in combination. Those overall survival results are expected in the first half of next year.
New York Jets Claims Lucky Whitehead
"We made a move that we thought was in the best interest of the Dallas Cowboys ", coach Jason Garrett told reporters Tuesday . Bracy spent time with the Carolina Panthers as the NFC South team signed him as an undrafted free agent this offseason.
Specifically, treatment with durvalumab and tremelimumab failed to demonstrate a statistically significant improvement in progression-free survival (PFS) compared to standard-of-care platinum chemo in NSCLC patients whose tumors express PD-L1 on at least 25% of their cancer cells. Roger Franklin and Graham Doyle of Liberum Capital Ltd. said that while the price would likely fall on the news, the share could still find support on bid-speculation.
There was also a strategic collaboration with fellow pharma giant Merck & Co Inc (NYSE:MRK) which will see the two work together to develop new cancer treatments based around Astra's Lynparza drug. As part of the agreement, Merck will pay AstraZeneca up to $8.5 billion in total consideration, including $1.6 billion upfront, $750 million for certain license options and up to $6.15 billion contingent on successful achievement of future regulatory and sales milestones. Since its launch in May, Imfinizi has made $1 million, and was fifth to market, years after leaders Bristol-Myers Squibb and Merck.
The failure of the hugely anticipated lung cancer drug study, dubbed Mystic, was described as "pretty much the worst case scenario" by one analyst.
"In the wake of these announcements, we fully expect investor concerns surrounding the sustainability of the dividend to be the main question on today's conference call given the massive contribution of externalization revenue to the overall P&L and the company's extraordinary cost structure", added Leerink Partners Seamus Fernandez in a note Thursday.
There was some better news elsewhere, with positive results from its lung cancer pill Tagrisso.
Imfinzi is approved for bladder cancer but the lung cancer trial failure all but guarantees that projections of peak sales of $7 billion will never be met.





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