AstraZeneca
AstraZeneca plc (/ˌæstrəˈzɛnəkə/) (AZ) is a British-Swedish multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company[2][3][4] with its headquarters at the Cambridge Biomedical Campus in Cambridge, England.[5] It has a portfolio of products for major diseases in areas including oncology, cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, infection, neuroscience, respiratory, and inflammation. It has been involved in developing the Oxford–AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine.[6]
This article is about the pharmaceutical company. For the vaccine, see Oxford–AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine.Company type
- LSE: AZN
- FTSE 100 component
- Nasdaq Stockholm: AZN
- OMX Stockholm 30 component
- Nasdaq: AZN (ADR)
- Nasdaq-100 component
6 April 1999
Global
- Michel Demaré (chairman)
- Sir Pascal Soriot (CEO)
Pharmaceutical products
US$8.193 billion (2023)[1]
US$5.961 billion (2023)[1]
US$101.119 billion (2023)[1]
US$39.166 billion (2023)[1]
89,900 (2023)[1]
The company was founded in 1999 through the merger of the Swedish Astra AB and the British Zeneca Group[7][8] (itself formed by the demerger of the pharmaceutical operations of Imperial Chemical Industries in 1993). Since the merger it has been among the world's largest pharmaceutical companies and has made numerous corporate acquisitions, including Cambridge Antibody Technology (in 2006), MedImmune (in 2007), Spirogen (in 2013) and Definiens (by MedImmune in 2014). It has its research and development concentrated in three strategic centres: Cambridge, England; Gothenburg, Sweden and Gaithersburg in Maryland, U.S.[9]
AstraZeneca traces its earliest corporate history to 1913, when Astra AB was formed by a large group of doctors and apothecaries in Södertälje. Throughout the twentieth century, it grew into the largest pharmaceutical company in Sweden. Its British counterpart, Zeneca PLC was formed in 1993 when ICI divested its pharmaceuticals businesses; Astra AB and Zeneca PLC merged six years later, with the chosen headquarters in the United Kingdom.[10]
AstraZeneca's primary listing is on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index; it also has a secondary listing on the Nasdaq Stockholm. AstraZeneca has one of the highest market capitalisations of pharmaceutical companies worldwide.[11]
Orphan drugs[edit]
In April 2015, AstraZeneca's drug tremelimumab was approved as an orphan drug for the treatment of mesothelioma in the United States.[130] In February 2016, AstraZeneca announced that a clinical trial of tremelimumab as a treatment for mesothelioma failed to meet its primary endpoint.[131]
Senior management[edit]
As of 2008, David Brennan was paid US$1,574,144 for his role as chief executive officer.[132]
On 26 April 2012, it was announced that Brennan was to retire in early June of that year.[133] In August 2012, Pascal Soriot was named CEO of AstraZeneca.[134]
It was also announced that Leif Johansson would succeed Louis Schweitzer as non-executive chairman on 1 June 2012, three months earlier than previously announced, and would become Chairman of the Nomination and Governance Committee after the 2012 Annual General Meeting.[133]
The company's non-executive Board directors are Philip Broadley, Euan Ashley, Michel Demaré, Deborah DiSanzo, Diana Layfield, Sheri McCoy, Tony Mok, Nazneen Rahman, Andreas Rummelt, and Marcus Wallenberg.[135]
Lobbying[edit]
Political lobbying[edit]
AstraZeneca is a member of the Personalized Medicine Coalition, a medical research advocacy group that lobbies on behalf of the pharmaceutical industry.[136]
Controversies[edit]
Following 2008 Sichuan earthquake[edit]
AstraZeneca's reputation in China was tarnished following the failure of its Chinese subsidiary to timely donate to relief efforts following the 2008 Sichuan earthquake.[137]: 121 Typically, donations for disaster relief in China are made through funds established through the Chinese Ministry of Civil Affairs and its subordinate organization the Red Cross Society of China.[137]: 121 AstraZeneca had a corporate rule prohibiting foreign subsidiaries from making donations to local governments and the company construed this rule as prohibiting donations for Sichuan earthquake relief efforts.[137]: 121 AstraZeneca's Chinese subsidiary received major backlash for its failure to donate.[137]: 121 While corporate approval was ultimately given for the Chinese subsidiary to donate, the approval came after long delay.[137]: 121
Seroquel[edit]
In April 2010, AstraZeneca settled a qui tam lawsuit brought by Stefan P. Kruszewski for US$520 million to settle allegations that the company defrauded Medicare, Medicaid, and other government-funded health care programs in connection with its marketing and promotional practices for the blockbuster atypical antipsychotic, Seroquel. According to the settlement agreement, AstraZeneca targeted its illegal marketing of the anti-psychotic Seroquel towards doctors who do not typically treat schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, such as physicians who treat the elderly, primary care physicians, pediatric and adolescent physicians, and in long-term care facilities and prisons.[138]
In March 2011, AstraZeneca settled a lawsuit in the United States totalling US$68.5 million to be divided up to 38 states.[139]
Nexium[edit]
The company's most commercially successful medication is esomeprazole (Nexium). The primary uses are treatment of gastroesophageal reflux disease, treatment and maintenance of erosive esophagitis, treatment of duodenal ulcers caused by Helicobacter pylori, prevention of gastric ulcers in those on chronic NSAID therapy, and treatment of gastrointestinal ulcers associated with Crohn's disease. When it is manufactured the result is a mixture of two mirror-imaged molecules, R and S. Two years before the omeprazole patent expired, AstraZeneca patented S-omeprazole in pure form, pointing out that since some people metabolise R-omeprazole slowly, pure S-omeprazole treatment would give higher dose efficiency and less variation between individuals.[140] In March 2001, the company began to market Nexium, as it would a brand new drug.[141]
The (R)-enantiomer of omeprazole is metabolized exclusively by the enzyme CYP2C19, which is expressed in very low amounts by 3% of the population. Treated with a normal dose of the enantiomeric mixture, these persons will experience blood levels five-times higher than those with normal CYP2C19 production. In contrast, esomeprazole is metabolized by both CYP2C19 and CYP3A4, providing less-variable drug exposure.[142] While omeprazole is approved only at doses of up to 20 mg for the treatment of gastroesophageal reflux,[143] esomeprazole is approved for doses up to 40 mg.[144]
In 2007, Marcia Angell, former editor-in-chief of the New England Journal of Medicine and a lecturer in social medicine at the Harvard Medical School, said in Stern, a German-language weekly newsmagazine, that AstraZeneca's scientists had misrepresented their research on the drug's efficiency, saying: "Instead of using presumably comparable doses [of each drug], the company's scientists used Nexium in higher dosages. They compared 20 and 40 mg Nexium with 20 mg Prilosec. With the cards having been marked in that way, Nexium looked like an improvement – which however was only small and shown in only two of the three studies."[145]
Bildman fraud, sexual harassment and faithless servant clawback[edit]
On 4 February 1998, Astra USA sued Lars Bildman, its former president and chief executive officer, seeking US$15 million for defrauding the company.[146] The sum included US$2.3 million in company funds he allegedly used to fix up three of his homes, plus money the company paid as the result of the EEOC investigation. Astra's lawsuit alleged Bildman sexually harassed and intimidated employees, used company funds for yachts and prostitutes, destroyed documents and records, and concocted: "tales of conspiracy involving ex-KGB agents and competitors. This was in a last-ditch effort to distract attention from the real wrongdoer, Bildman himself." Bildman had already pleaded guilty in US District Court for failing to report more than US$1 million in income on his tax returns.[147] In addition, several female co-workers filed personal sexual-harassment lawsuits against Bildman.[148] In April 1998, Bildman was sentenced to 21 months in prison three months after he pled guilty to filing false Federal tax returns.[149][147]
In February 1998, AstraZenaca's U.S. affiliate Astra U.S.A. agreed to a $10 million settlement after an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission investigation which started in May 1996 found that sexual harassment against female employees.[150] 120 former female employees of Astra were interviewed during the inquiry, with about 80 of them being identified as able to file claims.[150] Astra U.S.A. also issued a statement of apology for the hostile work environment.[150]
In Astra USA v. Bildman, 914 N.E.2d 36 (Mass. 2009), applying New York's faithless servant doctrine, the court held that a company's employee who had engaged in financial misdeeds and sexual harassment must "forfeit all of his salary and bonuses for the period of disloyalty".[151] The court held that this was the case even if the employee "otherwise performed valuable services", and that the employee was not entitled to recover restitution for the value of those other services.[151][152] The decision attracted a good deal of attention by legal commentators.[153]
CAFÉ study[edit]
In 2004, University of Minnesota research participant Dan Markingson took his own life while enrolled in an industry-sponsored pharmaceutical trial comparing three FDA-approved atypical antipsychotics: Seroquel (quetiapine), Zyprexa (olanzapine), and Risperdal (risperidone). University of Minnesota Professor of Bioethics Carl Elliott noted that Markingson was enrolled in the study against the wishes of his mother, Mary Weiss, and that he was forced to choose between enrolling in the study or being involuntarily committed to a state mental institution.[154] A 2005 FDA investigation cleared the university. Nonetheless, controversy around the case has continued. A Mother Jones article[154] resulted in a group of university faculty members sending a public letter to the university Board of Regents urging an external investigation into Markingson's death.[155]
Transfer mispricing[edit]
In 2010, AstraZeneca agreed to pay £505 million to settle a UK tax dispute related to transfer mispricing.[156]
