astrazeneca plc reported fourthquarter results on thursday here is what we watched revenue sales at the angloswedish pharma major declined in the quarter to 1121 billion from 1201 billion in the fourth quarter of 2021 astrazeneca said and product sales fell to 1080 billion from 1150 billion the year prior analysts had expected revenue to be 1125 billion in the quarter net profitcore eps net profit was 901 million in the quarter compared with a loss of 347 million in the fourth quarter of 2021 when the company took a hit from charges related to the acquisition of alexion pharmaceuticals profit beat analysts expectations of 819 million core earnings per share were 138 beating analysts expectations that saw them at 132 guidance guidance was broadly in line with expectations citi analyst andrew baum said in a note the company said it expects revenue to increase by a lowtomid singledigit percentage and by a low doubledigit percentage when excluding covid19 medicines core earnings per share are expected to increase by a high singledigit to low doubledigit percentage while total revenue from covid19 medicines including astrazenecas vaccine is expected to decline significantly in 2023 with minimal revenue from vaxzevria the company said consensus is expected to remain broadly stable and the market is expected to give a positive reaction given recent concerns around astrazenecas earnings analysts ay ubs said in a note key growth drivers among the topperforming drugs were cancer treatments tagrisso lynparza and imfinzi as expected although analysts pointed out that astrazenecas oncology portfolio as a whole missed consensus and that tagrisso was especially behind lynparza and imfinzi were also slightly below consensus ubs analysts said in a note covid19 lower sales of covid19 vaccine vaxzevria negatively affected total sales in the fourth quarter and the company said that it expects sales of all of its covid19 products including treatments to decline significantly in 2023 with minimal revenue coming from the vaccine product sales declined 6 in the fourth quarter due to lower sales of vaxzevria said astrazeneca