Deutsche Bank has maintained its sell rating and 11,500p price target on AstraZeneca PLC (LSE:AZN, NASDAQ:AZN), with the shares currently trading at 13,064p.
The FTSE 100 pharmaceuticals giant hosted an investor event at the American Society of Clinical Oncology annual conference in Chicago, which the bank’s analyst described as broadly incremental.
Deutsche Bank acknowledged AstraZeneca’s formidable oncology track record while pointing to a series of unresolved questions that temper enthusiasm for the stock.
The most closely watched data at the conference centred on the phase III EMERALD-3 trial involving AstraZeneca’s immunotherapy combination of Imfinzi and Imjudo, paired with lenvatinib and transarterial chemoembolisation.
That trial showed the combination cut the risk of disease progression or death by 30% versus TACE alone in patients with unresectable liver cancer eligible for embolisation.
Despite the positive readout, Deutsche Bank flagged uncertainty over whether EMERALD-3 will secure regulatory approval, describing the question as unresolved.
Similar concerns were raised about SERENA-6, AstraZeneca’s breast cancer study of camizestrant, a next-generation oestrogen receptor degrader.
Deutsche Bank also noted that the 2026 conference marked the first time since 2018 that AstraZeneca had not featured in the prestigious plenary session, ending an eight-year run.
A separate Deutsche Bank note, following a call with AstraZeneca’s head of cardiovascular and renal research and development, highlighted 2027 as a potentially significant year for pipeline catalysts.
Phase III readouts are expected for oral PCSK9 inhibitor laroprovstat, mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist balcinrenone, and endothelin receptor antagonist zibotentan during that period.
The bank also expressed caution over the early commercial trajectory of Baxfendy, a first-in-class hypertension treatment that recently received FDA approval, describing a third-party prescriber poll on the launch as mixed.
AstraZeneca’s Wainua RNA-interference therapy for hereditary transthyretin amyloidosis is expected to deliver a pivotal trial result in 2026, adding further events to an already busy near-term catalyst schedule.