Are these pharmaceutical stocks in the FTSE 100 worth looking at?

Some of the largest stocks in the FTSE 100 are pharmaceuticals

Tariffs threaten the industry, but some have reported positive outcomes in spite of this.

Despite possible obstacles, UK pharmaceutical companies are producing positive outcomes. The industry might be worth examining.

A number of the leading stocks in the UK's flagship index, the FTSE 100, are pharmaceutical companies. As of this writing, for instance, Astrazeneca (LON:AZN) has the largest market capitalization of any stock in the index, surpassing both the oil major Shell and the banking behemoth HSBC.

Currently, the space is being driven by numerous headwinds. For businesses like Astrazeneca, the market for weight loss medications has the potential to be enormous.

However, headwinds also exist. Trump's tariff policy, in particular, may present significant difficulties for these multinational corporations. A 200 percent tariff on pharmaceutical imports into the US has been threatened by Trump recently.

Is this the right time to purchase FTSE 100 pharmaceutical stocks, and how are the largest pharmaceutical stocks faring against these pressures?

Astrazeneca.

As of July 30th, Astrazenecas' stock had increased 9 points to 0.6 percent this year.

In contrast to the £27.7 billion analysts had predicted, Astrazeneca reported an 11% increase in first-half revenue on July 29 to £28 billion.

At £4.66, core earnings per share (EPS) increased by 17%.

"The pipeline's progress gives us more confidence that we can meet or surpass the £80 billion revenue target for 2030," said Derren Nathan, head of equity research at Hargreaves Lansdown.

With 12 successful late-stage clinical trial readouts and 19 approvals in key territories, Astras is maintaining a rapid pace of innovation and commercialization.

Nathan expressed disappointment, though, that despite Astrazeneca's impressive financial results, the company did not raise its forecast for the year.

The share price of Astrazenecas is being affected by tariffs, he added. "These concerns appear to have been exaggerated, as the threat of massive import taxes is currently abating, and Astra's £50 billion commitment for US investment is likely to put it in the good graces of the Trump administration," he stated.

Following the results, the price of Astrazenecas' stock increased 33.4 percent on July 29.

GSK.

GSK (LON:GSK) shares are up 7.8% so far this year. The stock saw a surge on July 30 after releasing a solid set of second-quarter results.

Revenue increased 6% to 8 billion, while EPS increased 15% to 46 point 5p, exceeding analyst expectations of 41 point 9p. Analysts had predicted revenue of 7.2 billion, which was marginally less than this.

Specialty medicine sales increased by 15%. The main HIV franchise and the oncology (cancer) division expanded by 12% and 42%, respectively, within this.

According to Nathan, "the prognosis for GSK is looking positive,". Sales and earnings for the second quarter both exceeded market expectations, demonstrating that it hasn't allowed tariff uncertainty to divert it too much.

Nathan added that the tariffs that have been applied thus far are included in the current guidance.

The stock of GSK had increased 3 percent as of 3:45 p.m. after the results.

The Haleon.

The stock of Haleons (LON:HLN) has dropped 40.8 percent so far this year, lagging behind its bigger FTSE 100 peers Astrazeneca and GSK.

The second quarter's revenue of £2.63 billion was lower than the £2.68 billion analysts had predicted and represented a 3 percent increase in organic revenue. This resulted in adjusted earnings for the first half of 2025 of 9 points 2p per share.

Following the results, Haleon's stock opened 3 points lower on July 31.

Comparing pharmaceutical stocks on the FTSE 100.

Here are the current prices of these three pharmaceutical stocks in relation to their historical and anticipated earnings. All information is based on the market close on July 30 (prior to Haleons' results).

The source is Yahoo Finance.