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AstraZeneca

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AstraZeneca PLC
Company typePublic LSE, NYSE and OMX: AZN
IndustryPharmaceutical
Founded6 April 1999 by merger
HeadquartersLondon, England, UK
Key people
Sir Tom McKillop CEO
David Brennan Vice President, North America and CEO-designate
Louis Schweitzer Chairman
John Symonds CFO
John Patterson Director, Drug Development
ProductsPharmaceutical products for humans
RevenueIncrease$26.48 billion (2006)[1]
Increase$8.22 billion (2006)[1]
1,227,000,000 United States dollar (2019) Edit this on Wikidata
Total assets61,377,000,000 United States dollar (2019) Edit this on Wikidata
Number of employees
66,600 (2006)
Websitewww.astrazeneca.com

AstraZeneca PLC[1] (LSE: AZN), is a large Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical company formed on 6 April 1999 by the merger of Swedish Astra AB and British Zeneca Group PLC. Zeneca was part of Imperial Chemical Industries prior to a demerger in 1993.[2][3] AstraZeneca develops, manufactures, and sells pharmaceuticals to treat disorders in the gastrointestinal, cardiac and vascular, neurological and psychiatric, infection, respiratory, pathological inflammation and oncology areas.

Sales in 2003 totalled $18.8 billion, with a profit before tax of $4.2 billion. Total R&D spending was $3.5 billion. The corporate headquarters are in London, England, the research and development (R&D) headquarters are in Södertälje, Sweden. Major R&D centres are located on three continents in the United States, United Kingdom, Sweden, and India.

The current chief executive of AstraZeneca is David Brennan.

Corporate governance

Current members of the board of directors of AstraZeneca are: Peter Bonfield, David Brennan, John Buchanan, Jane Henney, Michele Hooper, Joe Jimenez, Tom McKillop, Håkan Mogren, Erna Möller, Bridget Ogilvie, John Patterson, Louis Schweitzer, Jonathan Symonds, and Marcus Wallenberg.

Merger and acquisition activity

AstraZeneca has, following a collaborative relationship begun in 2004,[2] commenced the acquisition of Cambridge Antibody Technology (CAT).[3] The company is currently in the final stages of exercising compulsory acquisition options against outstanding CAT shares. On April 23, 2007 it was announced MedImmune and AstraZeneca entered into a definitive agreement under which AstraZeneca intends to acquire MedImmune in an all cash transaction at $58 per share, or about $15.2 billion. [4]

Collaborations and alliances

Diversity

AstraZeneca is one of the 100 Best Companies for Working Mothers in 2004 according to Working Mothers magazine.[4]

Free Medicines for Lower Income families in the USA

AstraZeneca's Patient Assistance Program provides access to AstraZeneca medicines for low income Americans by providing the medicines for free to eligible patients[11]

AstraZeneca and Breast Cancer

AstraZeneca is the major sponsor for Breast Cancer Awareness Month which focuses on "early detection and treatment"[5] but does little to address prevention[citation needed]. AstraZeneca is also a leading producer of breast cancer treatment drugs like Tamoxifen and Arimidex

Products

AstraZeneca specialises in prescription medicines to fight disease in the several therapeutic areas. Year-on sales information can be found through AstraZeneca annual reports. The following is a list of key products as found on the AstraZeneca UK website, retrieved 2005-03-27.

Controversies

Late Stage Trial Failures

AstraZeneca has experienced an extraordinary run of failures of drugs in late-stage clinical trials[6]. These include Galida for diabetes, Exanta to prevent thrombosis, NXY-059[7] for acute ischemic stroke, and AGI-1067 for prevention of atherosclerosis. With patents expiring on older drugs, this threatens future revenue growth.

MedImmune Takeover

After this long run of failed late-stage clinical trials, in April of 2007 AstraZeneca bought vaccine maker MedImmune, paying $15.2 billion primarily for its drug development pipeline. Analysts have criticized this take-over, claiming that AstraZeneca paid too much[8].

Nexium

Nexium, the trade name for Esomeprazole, is the successor to Prilosec (containing Omeprazole). Commentators have taken issue with its development being an example of a company attempting to "evergreen" its drug patents. In this practice, a company might not be able to maintain a product's price and market share in the face of competition after the expiry of its patent protection, and therefore tries to find a new, patentable medication in the same field, which would ensure maximum profitability and market share for the company if marketed properly[9].

In this specific case,Esomeprazole is a single stereoisomer of omeprazole and based upon available evidence there seems to be little difference between the two in dose-related response[10][11].Omeprazole is a very successful medication [12], but its patent protection expired in 2001. AZ, as owners of the lucrative Losec patent, sought to extend domination of the PPI market with Nexium and consequently marketed it as the successor to the original drug. Though identical in biological action[citation needed], the new drug could be patented, thus achieving an "evergreen" patent protection of the product and maintaining market share. This practice is criticised because it involves high costs for either individual patients and public healthcare systems[13], as well as potentially immoral, aggressive marketing to doctors in order to prevent them from prescribing generics[14].

On 16th of August, 2007, Marcia Angell, former editor-in-chief of the New England Journal of Medicine and Harvard Medical School lecturer in social medicine, alleged in the German magazine "Stern" that AstraZeneca's scientists had doctored their research on the drug's efficiency:[15]

Instead of using presumably comparable doses [of each drug], the company's scientists used Nexium in higher dosages. They compared 20 and 40mg Nexium with 20mg 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.

Nexium is also alleged by the authors to be "the top of the list" of medications which are marketed by pharmaceutical companies directly to doctors, who receive gifts of money and/or goods when they prescribe the medication in question. As a reason for the company's behaviour, it is alleged that the German public healthcare system spends an additional €99 million per annum on Nexium as compared to using Omeprazole, which however would be less profitable for the company as its patent protection has expired.[16]

According to The New Yorker, Nexium has "become a symbol of everything that is wrong with the pharmaceutical industry".[17]

Malaria drugs

Chloroquine and Paludrine were marketed with diminutive vague health warnings inside the boxes. Rather than specifying "depression", Zeneca used the term "changes in mood". Also "panic attacks and anxiety" were not mentioned, only "fits and seizures", in effect hiding information about mental effects, as it was more widely reported. As a result of these understatements, thousands of people went on holiday carrying up to 365 days dosage of these drugs, without any understanding that if they were experiencing black moods after a couple of months, the medication should be discontinued. In 1998 the University of Edinburgh department of tropical medicine conducted a study on over 100 gap year students that had been abroad. It found that 31.8% of them that had taken the antiprophylactics for over three months complained of depression compared to 12.4% of students that had taken a holiday but not taken Chloroquine or Paludrine at all. Neither Zeneca nor the NHS replied to the findings of the study. The conclusion of the study was that Chloroquine and Paludrine cause a slow and gradual depression, and that the NHS were widely prescribing double dosages of the drug without any health warnings.

Corporate sexual harrassment

Confronted by allegations in a May 13, 1996, Business Week cover story,[18][19] of widespread sexual harassment and other abuses at its Astra USA Inc. subsidiary, the company suspended three top executives and launched an internal probe.[20]

On June 26, the parent company announced that it had fired Astra USA President and CEO Lars Bildman without severance pay. Carl-Gustav Johansson, an Astra executive vice-president, says the investigation found that Bildman had "exhibited inappropriate behavior at company functions" and had "abused his power." He was also accused of misappropriation of funds, diverting them for personal expenses such as "lavish trips" and "extensive renovations for his home." Another suspended executive, George Roadman, was also fired, while a third, Edward Aarons, resigned. A senior executive in Sweden, Anders Lonner, was asked to resign for failing to report the misconduct to superiors, Astra says.

Astra USA agreed to pay $9.85 million to settle a suit brought by at least 79 women and one man against the company. The suit accused Astra's former president and other executives of pressuring female employees for sex and replacing older workers with younger, more attractive women. It was the biggest sexual harassment settlement ever obtained by the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.[21]

Astra USA admitted that it allowed a hostile environment—including requests for sexual favors, replacing older female employees with younger women, and pressuring women into having sex. Bildman reportedly demanded that "eight hours of work be followed by eight hours of drinking and partying." In addition to firing Bildman and other top officials, Astra USA agreed to a sexual harassment policy and took action against 30 employees and Astra customers who had taken part in the harassment. Current USA CEO, Ivan Rowley apologized:

As a company, we are ashamed of the unacceptable behavior that took place. … To each person that has been harmed and who has suffered because of that behavior, I offer our apologies.

On February 4, 1998, Astra USA sued Bildman, seeking $15 million for defrauding the company. The sum included $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 … in a last-ditch effort to distract attention from the real wrongdoer, Bildman himself." Bildman had already plead guilty in U.S. District Court for failing to report more than $1 million in income on his tax returns; in addition, several female co-workers filed personal sexual-harassment lawsuits.[22]

See also

References and notes

  1. ^ standard practice is that the name be pronounced as "Astra Zeneca" rather than "Astrazeneca".
  2. ^ AstraZeneca - History, merger of Astra AB and Zeneca Group PLC, part of the AstraZeneca home site. Retrieved 2005-03-20. (merger and post-merger history)
  3. ^ AstraZeneca: Merger partners in brief, part of the AstraZeneca home site. Retrieved 2005-03-20. (history of Astra AB and Zeneca Group PLC)
  4. ^ AstraZeneca PLC (July 28, 2005). The Board of AstraZeneca PLC announces the appointment of David R Brennan as Chief Executive with effect from 1 January 2006 upon the retirement at that time of Sir Tom McKillop. Press release.
  5. ^ AstraZeneca Profile. Verified availability August 5, 2005.
  6. ^ Gladwell, Malcolm (October 25, 2004). "High Prices: How to think about prescription drugs". The New Yorker. Verified availability August 19, 2007.
  7. ^ Grill, Markus and Hansen, Hans (2007): "Vorsicht, Pharma! Wie die Industrie Ärzte manipuliert und Patienten täuscht." ('Caution, Pharma! How the industry manipulates physicians and deceives patients.') Published in the 16.08.2007 issue of the magazine "Stern" (Germany; pp. 100-107). Available as an e-paper here. }}
  1. ^ a b http://www.astrazeneca.com/sites/7/imagebank/typeArticleparam511715/astrazeneca-annual-report-20F-2006.pdf
  2. ^ "AstraZeneca and Cambridge Antibody Technology announce major strategic alliance to discover and develop human antibody therapeutics in inflammatory disorders" (Press release). AstraZeneca. 22 November 2004. Retrieved 2007-04-25.
  3. ^ "AstraZeneca To Acquire Cambridge Antibody for $1.3B". MarketWatch from Dow Jones. PharmaWeek. 15 May 2006. Retrieved 2007-04-25.May 15, 2006 MarketWatch report
  4. ^ "Recommended Cash Offer by AstraZeneca UK Limited for Cambridge Antibody Technology Group plc Posting of Compulsory Acquisition Notices" (Press release). AstraZeneca. 7 July 2006. Retrieved 2007-04-25.
  5. ^ Press Release 11 January 2007
  6. ^ Press release, 5 July 2006
  7. ^ Press release, 27 July 2005
  8. ^ Press release, 11 July 2005
  9. ^ "Pennsylvania Bio - Member Listings". Pennsylvania Bio web site. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accessmonthday= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  10. ^ Press release, 27 July 2005
  11. ^ AstraZeneca Patient Assistance Program on AZ Website
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