Profits beat forecasts, but a 17% fall in share price since executives were detained by Beijing may be hard to shake

In the world of two weeks ago, AstraZeneca’s share price would have probably enjoyed a strong day on the release of Tuesday’s third-quarter numbers. The profit figure beat forecasts and the UK pharmaceutical company raised its guidance for growth in full-year revenues and earnings from “mid-teens” to “high teens”.

Meanwhile, Pascal Soriot, the chief executive, unveiled a $3.5bn (£2.7bn) investment programme in the US and talked bullishly about prospects in AstraZeneca’s biggest market. It all sounded like another confident step in the march to take global revenues from $46bn in 2023 to $80bn by 2030.