AstraZeneca PLC (LSE:AZN, NASDAQ:AZN) investors might want to take a deep breath. Deutsche Bank has turned bearish on the UK drugmaker, cutting its rating from Hold to Sell and trimming its price target to £105 from £110, well below the current share price of 12,548p (down 1%).
Its analysts say it is time to get “explicitly negative” on the stock, arguing that the post-pandemic golden run for AstraZeneca’s oncology pipeline has started to fade.
The shares, he notes, sit at the top of their recent trading range and trade on roughly 17 times expected 2026 earnings, around the middle of their decade-long average.
That valuation might not look stretched, but the bank thinks the real pressure lies ahead.
AstraZeneca faces looming patent expiries, starting with its diabetes drug Farxiga in the first half of 2026. At the same time, Deutsche's confidence in the company’s cancer pipeline has waned after a closer look at one of its most-watched experimental drugs.
DB's team is particularly sceptical about AstraZeneca’s camizestrant, part of a class of breast cancer treatments known as selective oestrogen receptor degraders, or SERDs.
Their research suggests these drugs may not offer a “meaningful benefit over current standard of care” for most patients.
With that, Deutsche Bank has cut its price target by 5% and sees AstraZeneca’s shares more likely to drift down than up. Investors, it seems, are being advised to brace for a less heroic chapter in the company’s oncology story.