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STORY: Anglo-Swedish drugmaker AstraZeneca raised its full year sales and profit forecast on Thursday (July 25).

That’s after beating analyst expectations for its second-quarter revenue - thanks to strong demand for its cancer, rare disease and heart disease medicines.

Sales in oncology - AstraZeneca’s top business - grew almost 20% to over $5.3 billion.

And its divisions for rare disease, heart, and kidney disease also raked in double-digit growth.

While the forecast-beating Q2 revenue hit almost $13 billion, analysts said it was dented by a rise in expenses - and slightly softer sales of two cancer drugs.

Despite this, AstraZeneca stated it expects both 2024 revenue and core earnings per share to increase by a mid-teens percentage.

It was a similar story for fellow pharmaceutical giant Roche.

The Swiss drugmaker raised its full-year earnings on Thursday after its first-half operating profit exceeded expectations, d riven by strong demand for newer drugs, such as eye medicine Vabysmo.

Revenue for this drug, which is used to treat a common form of blindness in elderly people, nearly doubled, beating estimates.

Roche expects growth in adjusted earnings in the "high single-digit range".

Shares were up in afternoon trading, having hit a near one-year high earlier in the day.