AstraZeneca was formed on 6 April 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