AstraZeneca is a Stock to Watch in 2016

According to Motley Fool, a pharmaceutical patent cliff is poised to set in next year. AstraZeneca’s (NYSE:AZN) current efforts to return to profitability may be a foreshadowing of what is to come for many companies in 2016.
According to the article:

Everything that has come to define the patent cliff can be found within the walls of the British pharma giant AstraZeneca. The loss of patent protection for the drugmaker’s heartburn medication, Nexium, and asthma drug, Symbicort, have smashed the company’s top line this year.
Total product sales, for example, are on track to fall by 5.4% for the year in 2015. And with the cholesterol-lowering drug Crestor scheduled to lose patent protection next year, Astra’s top line should drop by another 4% in 2016.
So, like many of its peers facing similar problems, Astra has had to lay off big chunks of its workforce and cut costs where possible to keep its falling top line from cratering its bottom line. Fortunately, these efforts have paid off, with the drugmaker’s core EPS remaining fairly stable during this period of major upheaval.
The patent cliff has nonetheless forced Astra to reinvent itself in many ways. Specifically, the drugmaker has shifted its primary business interests, placing a much heavier emphasis on high-growth markets such as diabetes and oncology.

Click here to read the full article on Motley fool.