AstraZeneca was formed on April 6, 1999 through the merger of Astra AB of Sweden and Zeneca Group PLC of the UK – two companies with similar science-based cultures and a shared vision of the pharmaceutical industry.
The merger aimed to improve the combined companies’ ability to deliver long term growth and enduring shareholder value through:
Global power & reach in sales and marketing
- Ability to deliver the potential of existing and future products through the power and reach of a combined global sales and marketing resource.
- Widespread class coverage in key therapy areas, such as cardiovascular and respiratory disease, due to complementary nature of products.
- Major primary care presence, particularly in gastrointestinal, cardiovascular and respiratory medicine.
- Leading position in a number of specialist/hospital markets, including oncology and anaesthesia.
Stronger R&D platform for innovation-led growth
- Substantial research and development (R&D) expenditure.
- Strong combined development pipeline.
- Potential for further strengthening of the pipeline by enhanced discovery and development capability through greater scale and focus on selected areas and technologies.
Greater financial strategic flexibility
- Financial strength and scale to give AstraZeneca's management greater strategic flexibility to drive long-term earnings growth.
- Substantial operational efficiencies resulting in cost savings.