AstraZeneca (AZN 0.49%) has been anything but a top stock lately. This big pharma member has seen sales slump by 15% in its most recent fiscal year alone, part of a huge hit from the patent cliff that continues to hamper the company's future outlook. The stock's only gained around 8% year-to-date, far less than some of its more accomplished rivals that have managed to beat back the worst of the patent cliff in recent quarters.
The future isn't looking much brighter right now, as AstraZeneca's suffering from a lackluster pipeline and further projected sales declines next year. AstraZeneca has looked around the health care sector in hopes of finding the right acquisition to bolster its future, but so far, it's come up with only modest successes. Credit Suisse projected earlier in the year that the company will need $6 billion in new annual sales just to average 2% annual growth by 2016, a tall order for a company nowhere near revenue growth right now.
But can AstraZeneca's current drugs in development help stem the bleeding? This week, the company launched a phase 3 trial of its promising non-small-cell lung cancer drug candidate selumetinib. Can this drug help ease AstraZeneca investors' worries? In the video below, Fool contributor Dan Carroll tells you what you need to know about selumetinib's outlook-and whether it will be the beginning of a long road back for AstraZeneca and its flailing finances.
