Drugs giant AstraZeneca today posted a record set of first quarter profits of more than $2 billion - helped by surging sales of its key drugs such as cholesterol-buster Crestor - and prompting it to hike its earnings forecasts for the full year.

Shares in Europe's third-largest drugs maker jumped 65p or more than 2 per cent this morning after it upgraded its earnings per share forecasts to a range of $3.6 to $3.9 for the full year.

As it kicked off a results day dominated by pharmaceuticals, Astra set out its stall with a 12 per cent increase in sales and a one-third jump in operating profits to $1.976 billion.

Sales in the first quarter came in at just under $6.2 billion, driven by healthy rises in the drugmaker's set of five benchmark drugs: Nexium, Seroquel, Arimidex, Symbicort and Crestor.

David Brennan, the chief executive, said: "The momentum we have generated in our business is evident in the strong first quarter sales growth of 12 per cent. This, coupled with continued cost discipline, has resulted in another strong quarterly earnings performance, with earnings per share up 40 per cent."

As Mr Brennan said the strong first-quarter performance gave the group "confidence for the remainder of the year", he said he would continue to pursue expansion opportunities, highlighting an agreement struck earlier in the day with Abraxis BioScience to co-promote its cancer therapy Abraxane.

The incumbents in the pharamaceuticals sector have been under pressure to invest in new drug development as the patents begin to expire on their blockbuster drug treatments and smaller rivals find themselves able to produce cheaper generic versions.

AstraZeneca today said investment in the business remained a priority. Its free cashflow in the first quarter stood at just under $1.34 billion.

Results for Shire Pharmaceuticals and GlaxoSmithKline will follow shortly.

For AstraZeneca, the combined sales of its top five growth drugs increased by 25 per cent over the first quarter, as its sales figures beat the City's median estimate.

Crestor, which was associated with an expensive marketing campaign in the United States, was the best performer, increasing sales by 45 per cent to $387 million.

Seroquel, Astra's schizophrenia treatment, increased sales by 29 per cent to $807 million, while its ulcer treatment Nexium pushed up sales by 16 per cent to $1.19 billion.

Astra's respiratory treatment Symbicort posted sales of $277 million, an increase of 21 per cent, and oncology drug Arimidex increased sales by 38 per cent to $335 million.

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