ASTRAZENECA AGREES TO VOTE ITS SUGEN SHARES IN SUPPORT OF PHARMACIA & UPJOHN MERGER PROPOSAL

If all conditions to the proposed merger transaction are satisfied, including the necessary level of shareholder approval, AstraZeneca will receive shares in P&U in exchange for its SUGEN stock. The $31-a-share offer from P&U values the AstraZeneca holding at $94m and represents a significant premium to AstraZeneca's acquisition costs for the Sugen shares.

AstraZeneca and SUGEN have collaborated since 1995 in developing technology and identifying novel cancer targets based on signal transduction, but the five-year research agreement was scheduled to expire in March 2000.

"We have had a friendly and productive research relationship with SUGEN for the past four years. The collaboration has augmented the work AstraZeneca has carried out on its own kinase target research programmes and has broadened the opportunities available to us. We now have a strong in-house presence in this technology with good options to pursue our work in this important research area." said Dr. Les Hughes, Global Head of Cancer Research AstraZeneca.

AstraZeneca is currently number two in oncology and aims to become the leading pharmaceutical company in this area. AstraZeneca is at the forefront of the development of kinase inhibitors for the treatment of cancer. AstraZeneca currently has two compounds - an EGF receptor kinase inhibitor and a VEGF receptor kinase inhibitor (anti angiogenesis agent) - both of which are currently in clinical development, and have come from AstraZeneca's own research in this area.