History

• Astra AB was founded in 1913 in Södertälje, Sweden, by 400

doctors and apothecaries.
• In 1993 the British chemicals company ICI (established from four
British chemical companies) demerged its pharmaceuticals
businesses and its agrochemicals and specialities businesses, to
form Zeneca Group PLC.
• The fusion between Swedish pharmaceutical company, Astra
AB, and UK-based Zeneca Group plc, was one of the largest-ever
European mergers at the time
• When the fusion was announced in 1998, it was called a “merger of equals
to create a global leader in pharmaceuticals”. On completion of the
merger, Astra Shareholders held a 46.5% share, while Zeneca Shareholders
held 53.5%.
• Finally, in 1999 Astra and Zeneca Group merged to form
AstraZeneca plc, with its headquarters in London.
• In 1999, AstraZeneca identified a new location for the
company's US base, the "Fairfax-plus" site in North Wilmington,
Delaware.
• Since the merger it has been among the world's largest
pharmaceutical companies and has made numerous corporate
acquisitions, including Cambridge Antibody Technology.
• Astra finally became profitable in 1929, eventually increasing
sales 100-fold by 1957.
• The company took its first step into independent research in the
1930s by developing drugs like Hepaforte — a treatment for a
disease that prevents the body from absorbing enough Vitamin
B-12.
• The company purchased rivals Tika Pharmaceuticals and Paul G.
Nordstrom’s factories in 1942 to become the dominant drug
company in Sweden.
 • The company expanded worldwide, forming subsidiaries in
Europe, the U.S., South America and Australia by the 1970s
• On 19 May 2014 AstraZeneca rejected a "final offer"
from Pfizer of £55 per share, which valued the company at
£69.4 billion (US$117 billion). The companies had been meeting
since January 2014. If the takeover had proceeded, Pfizer would
have become the world's biggest drug maker. The transaction
would also have been the biggest foreign takeover of a British
company. Many in Britain, including politicians and scientists,
had opposed the deal.
• Key Dates:

• 1913: Astra AB formed in Sweden.

• 1926: Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI, parent company of Zeneca PLC) founded in the UK.

• 1943: Astra develops Xylocane, which becomes the world's largest-selling local anesthetic.

• 1988: Hanakan Mogren appointed CEO of Astra AB.

• 1993: Zeneca PLC demerged from ICI.

• 1996: Astra's Losec becomes world's best-selling prescription drug.

• • 1999: Astra AB and Zeneca PLC merge to form AztraZeneca PLC.

Activity
• AstraZeneca plc is a British-Swedish multinational
pharmaceutical and biotechnology company.
• its headquarters at the Cambridge Biomedical Campus in
Cambridge, England.
• 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. To date, two billion doses of the COVID-19
vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca
have been released to more than 170 countries.
•

Vision
We want to transform healthcare, change the lives of billions of
people for the better and address some of the biggest healthcare
challenges facing humankind.
Our ambition is to stop the progress of these often degenerative,
debilitating, and life-threatening conditions, achieve remission, and
one day cure them

Mission
is to discover new ways to improve and extend people's lives.
strategy
The fundamentals of our strategy are clear. We focus on innovative
science and leadership in our three main therapy areas: Oncology;
Cardiovascular, Renal and Metabolism; and Respiratory diseases.
Backed by a global presence, with strength in Emerging Markets,
particularly China, we have a portfolio of specialty and primary care
medicines.
At the same time, the world around us is changing and the burden of
disease is increasing. We are responding by increasing our focus on
growth through innovation - being more patient-centric, doing more
with technology, digital and data, and advancing more cutting-edge
science.

The company implemented a ‘5R’ framework to make sure

every drug it investigates has a higher chance of success –
right target, right tissue, right patient, right safety and right
commercial”

SWOT ANALYSIS
Strength
1. Rapid decision making & streamlined due diligence processing
2.Emerging Markets StrategyS
We have a three-pillar strategy in Emerging Markets, which was
originally built upon the China strategy of Expansion, Innovation and
Partnership.
--expansion, we can reach more patients with our medicines in previously-
inaccessible countrieS.
--innovation, our aim is to strongly contribute to patient-centric, fully-
integrated ecosystems. We also aim to discover and develop new medicines in
Emerging Markets that are fit for our patient populations in those markets.
--Partnership is more than just a word or intention – at AstraZeneca we
proactively work with local and central governments and local partners. We
also work closely with local healthcare providers and local capital markets
where possible.

3. Active in over 100 countries employing over 60,000 people

4. High investment in R&D with 11,000+ dedicated R&D team(5 r
framework.
5. Ten products with global sales above 1 billion dollar
6. Product portfolio includes cancer, cardiovascular, gastrointestinal,
infection, neuroscience, respiratory and inflammation medicine
7-Focusing on quality, not quantity(compete on
differniation).competitiveness
8.High level of customer satisfaction – the company with its
dedicated customer relationship management department has able
to achieve a high level of customer satisfaction among present
customers and good brand equity among the potential customers.
9. Good Returns on Capital Expenditure‫–العائدات علي االنفلق الراسمالي‬
AstraZeneca PLC is relatively successful at execution of new projects
and generated good returns on capital expenditure by building new
revenue streams.‫تدفق االيرادات‬
weakness
1. It was affected by drug shortage crisis as in case of Cefotan

2. Product discontinuation affects the performance

• There are gaps in the product range sold by the company. This
lack of choice can give a new competitor a foothold in the market.

3. Legal proceedings related to patents and pricing issues affect

image

• Not very good at product demand forecasting leading to higher

rate of missed opportunities compare to its competitors. One
of the reason why the days inventory ‫اجمالي نفقات‬is high compare
to its competitors is that AstraZeneca PLC is not very good at
demand forecasting thus end up keeping higher inventory both
in-house and in channel.
• The marketing of the products left a lot to be desired. Even
though the product is a success in terms of sale but its
positioning and unique selling proposition is not clearly defined
which can lead to the attacks in this segment from the
competitors.
• Not highly successful at integrating firms with different work
culture. As mentioned earlier even though AstraZeneca PLC is
successful at integrating small companies it has its share of
failure to merge firms that have different work culture.
 • Financial planning is not done properly and efficiently. The
current asset ratio and liquid asset ratios suggest that the
company can use the cash more efficiently than what it is doing
at present.
• The profitability ratio and Net Contribution % of AstraZeneca
PLC are below the industry average.
• Limited success outside core business – Even though
AstraZeneca PLC is one of the leading organizations in its
industry it has faced challenges in moving to other product
segments with its present culture.

Opportunities
• The new technology provides an opportunity to AstraZeneca PLC to
practices differentiated pricing strategy in the new market. It will enable
the firm to maintain its loyal customers with great service and lure new
customers through other value oriented propositions.
• Decreasing cost of transportation because of lower shipping prices can
also bring down the cost of AstraZeneca PLC’s products thus providing
an opportunity to the company - either to boost its profitability or pass
on the benefits to the customers to gain market share.
• New customers from online channel – Over the past few years the
company has invested vast sum of money into the online platform. This
investment has opened new sales channel for AstraZeneca PLC. In the
next few years the company can leverage this opportunity by knowing
its customer better and serving their needs using big data analytics.
• Economic uptick and increase in customer spending, after years of
recession and slow growth rate in the industry, is an opportunity for
AstraZeneca PLC to capture new customers and increase its market
share.
 • Stable free cash flow provides opportunities to invest in adjacent
product segments. With more cash in bank the company can invest in
new technologies as well as in new products segments. This should open
a window of opportunity for AstraZeneca PLC in other product
categories.
• Opening up of new markets because of government agreement – the
adoption of new technology standard and government free trade
agreement has provided AstraZeneca PLC an opportunity to enter a new
emerging market.
• Lower inflation rate‫ – معدل التضخم‬The low inflation rate bring more
stability in the market, enable credit at lower interest rate to the
customers of AstraZeneca PLC.
• New trends in the consumer behavior can open up new market for the
AstraZeneca PLC . It provides a great opportunity for the organization to
build new revenue streams and diversify into new product categories
too
• . Increasing importance of biosimiler market
• . Increasing global ageing population

Threats
• Growing strengths of local distributors also presents a threat in
some markets as the competition is paying higher margins to
the local distributors.
• Intense competition – Stable profitability has increased the
number of players in the industry over last two years which has
put downward pressure on not only profitability but also on
overall sales.
• No regular supply of innovative products – Over the years the
company has developed numerous products but those are
often response to the development by other players. Secondly
the supply of new products is not regular thus leading to high
and low swings in the sales number over period of time.
 • New technologies developed by the competitor or market
disruptor could be a serious threat to the industry in medium to
long term future.
• The company can face lawsuits in various markets given -
different laws and continuous fluctuations regarding product
standards in those markets.
• Rising pay level especially movements such as $15 an hour and
increasing prices in the China can lead to serious pressure on
profitability of AstraZeneca PLC
• Shortage of skilled workforce in certain global market
represents a threat to steady growth of profits for AstraZeneca
PLC in those markets.
• Rising raw material can pose a threat to the AstraZeneca PLC
profitability.
• Seroquel their blockbuster drug is facing threat of copycat
generic drugs
• Stringent drug development guidelines
• Competition coming up with effective drugs

Products and Services

In 1948, Astra developed the blockbuster numbing agent Xylocaine
(lidocaine), giving it a worldwide presence for the first time. The
U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved it three years later,
and the U.S. became its largest market. The success of the drug
allowed Astra to invest more money into research
The company took its first step into independent research in the
1930s by developing drugs like Hepaforte — a treatment for a
disease that prevents the body from absorbing enough Vitamin B-
12.

AstraZeneca manufactures, markets and/or distributes more than

39 drugs in the United States. Medications listed here may also be
marketed under different names in different countries.

What are AstraZeneca biggest drugs?

• Crestor, Symbicort, and Nexium are the best performing drugs
by a large margin, however, with many of their exclusivities
expiring; revenues for these drugs are expected to half by
2023.
• As of 2020, AstraZeneca's top pharmaceutical product by
revenue was Tagrisso, a medication used in the treatment of
non-small-cell lung carcinomas. During that year, Tagrisso
generated nearly 4.3 billion U.S. dollars in revenue for the
• Farxiga) (dapagliflozin) is a type 2 diabetes drug jointly
developed by AstraZeneca and Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS). It
is the first SGLT2 (sodium / glucose cotransporter 2) class drug
developed by BMS and AstraZeneca. FARXIGA can help people
with CKD by reducing the risk of further worsening of kidney
disease
•
• FRIDAY, Sept. 20, 2019 (HealthDay News) -- A new pill to
lower blood sugar for people with type 2 diabetes was
approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Friday.
The drug, Rybelsus (semaglutide) is the first pill in a class of
drugs called glucagon-like peptide (GLP-1) approved for use in
the United States.Sep 20, 2019

Products Brands
Cardiovascular and Metabolic Products Accolate
Gastrointestinal Products Arimidex
Infection Products and Vaccines Atacand

Arimidex 1mg Clavotrol Crestor 40mg Emsylate 250mg

Tablet 250mg/125mg Tablet Tablet
Tablet

BRICACEF PAED Gladis Tablet Hycoson 100mg Imfinzi Injection

50 MG/31.25 MG Injection
DRY SYRUP

Linctus D Syrup Meronem Momcal Tablet Naropin 0.75%

1000mg Injection Injection

Nitract 2.5mg Nolvadex 10mg Olways AM 20 Rhinofex 180mg

Capsule SR Tablet mg/5 mg Tablet Tablet
Seloram 50 mg/5
mg Tablet

Vermitel 200mg Xigduo Xigduo XR Xylo Ointment

Suspension 5mg/1000mg 10mg/1000mg
Tablet IR Tablet

Valenzia Tablet Tomaris 10mg Tagrisso 80mg Sensorcaine

Tablet Tablet Heavy 0.5%
Injection

Xylocard 2% Zestril 2.5mg Zoladex LA Sens 0.5%

Injection Tablet 10.8mg In Injection

Valfect 80mg Valfect H Valfect 40mg

Tablet 80mg/12.5mg Tablet
Tablet

Olways H 12.5 Profit Gold Prostodin Pulmicort 0.5mg

mg/40 mg Tablet Protein Powder 125mcg Injection Respules
 Pulmicort Qtern 5mg/10mg Ramace 1.25 Rhinocort 64mcg
100mcg Inhaler Tablet Tablet Aquanase

Bricarex 100 Caprelsa Tablet Cerviprime 0.5mg

mg/2.5 mg Tablet Brilinta 60mg Clavotrol 875 Gel
Lignocaine 4% Tablet mg/125 mg
Cream Linctus Codeinae Tablet
CO Syrup

Acquisition history
The following is an illustration of the company's major mergers and acquisitions and historical
predecessors:[109]
• AstraZeneca
o AstraZeneca (Merged 1999)
▪ Astra AB (Founded 1913)
▪ Tika (Acq 1939)
▪ Zeneca (Spun off from Imperial Chemical Industries, 1993)
▪ Salick Health Care (Acq 1996)
▪ Ishihara Sangyo Kaisha (US fungicide operations, Acq 1997)
o KuDOS Pharmaceuticals (Acq 2005)
o MedImmune Biologics
▪ Cambridge Antibody Technology (Acq 2006)
▪ Aptein Inc (Acq 1998)
▪ MedImmune (Acq 2007)
▪ Definiens[110] (Acq 2014)
o Arrow Therapeutics (Acq 2007)
o Novexel Corp (Acq 2010)
o Guangdong BeiKang Pharmaceutical Company (Acq 2011)
o Ardea Biosciences (Acq 2012)
o Amylin Pharmaceuticals (Acq 2012 jointly with Bristol-Myers Squibb)
o Spirogen (Acq 2013)
o Pearl Therapeutics[111] (Acq 2013)
o Omthera Pharmaceuticals[112] (Acq 2013)
o ZS Pharma (Acq 2015)
o Alexion Pharmaceuticals[113] (Acq 2021)
▪ Proliferon Inc (Acq 2000, restructured into Alexion Antibody Technologies
Inc)
▪ Enobia Pharma Corp (Acq 2011)
▪ Synageva BioPharma (Acq 2015)
▪ Wilson Therapeutics (Acq 2018)
▪ Syntimmune (Acq 2018)
▪ Achillion Pharmaceuticals (Acq 2019)
▪ Portola Pharmaceuticals (Acq 2020)
▪ Caelum Biosciences (Acq 2021)
n June 2007, AstraZeneca completed the acquisition of vaccine maker MedImmune,
buying its drug-development pipeline for $15.2 billion. However many analysts felt
the company had paid far too much for the US-based company, especially as it had
few late-stage drugs with major commercial potential.

Having already acquired UK-based Cambridge Antibody Technology ( CAT)in 2006,

AstraZeneca merged these two companies to create a dedicated global biologics
organisation known as MedImmune.

Projects of astra Egypt Pulmo-Aid project

Specialized Hypertension Clinics

In collaboration with the Ministry of Health and the Egyptian Hypertension

Society AstraZeneca is establishing specialized Hypertension Clinics in MOH
and university hospitals, aiming at reaching a broader patient segment,
upgrading knowledge of MOH HCPs in management of Hypertension and
enhancing the disease awareness of patients.
I-Protect Project

I-Protect project is an integrated patient-centric initiative by the National Institute

of Diabetes and Endocrinology (NIDE) in Egypt, sponsored by AstraZeneca. The
project started in 2014 and has been implemented in important centers &
hospitals with a plan to cover all geographical regions in Egypt. The main
objectives of the Programme are HCP education, patient education and early
detection of diabetes complications (retinopathy, nephropathy & neuropathy).
Pharma Excellence - Good Pharmacy Practice

The Pharma Excellence - Good Pharmacy Practice (GPP) project is a 2-year

program accredited by St. John’s University, New York, USA in partnership with
the Egyptian Syndicate of Pharmacists and the Faculty of Pharmacy at Al -Azhar
University. The program aims to improve pharmacy practice through offering
courses on drug information center, clinical pharmacy, good storage practices,
supply chain management and patient counseling. Home

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Companies
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AstraZeneca: six scandals to remember

ASTRAZENECA: SIX SCANDALS TO REMEMBER

1961: One of the most infamous of all drugs, Thalidomide is mainly associated with
West German pharmaceutical company Chemie Grünenthal GmbH, but
AstraZeneca’s predecessor company Astra (which later merged with Zeneca Group
to form AstraZeneca) manufactured and sold it in Sweden. When given to pregnant
women Thalidomide caused the deaths of many infants and severe disabilities in
those who survived. Marketed under the name Neurosedyn, it affected 180
Swedish children during the 1960s. The babies were born with severe
disabilities and a third died soon after birth. According to a report on Radio
Sweden, Astra settled with victims and their families in 1969 and agreed to pay
damages, but never admitted any guilt.
2002: Multiple patients suffered a form of pneumonia and some died from
taking Iressa, AstraZeneca’s lung cancer treatment drug. According to the Japan
Times, of the 7,000 people that took the drug in the country, about 160 died of
interstitial pneumonia, believed to be a side effect of the drug. The company was
forced to apply a clearer warning label regarding the danger.
2003: A man committed suicide during an AstraZeneca-funded drug trial that was
accused of grossly unethical practices. The company was trying to show its new
antipsychotic drug – Seroquel – was better than the existing generic version,
hoping that a new patented drug would bring bumper profits. But in the trial,
Seroquel was found to perform worse than the existing drug and to cause
undesirable side effects, including the increased the risk of weight gain and
diabetes. Tragically, one man – Dan Markingson – committed suicide during the
trial. He had been recruited to it despite experiencing psychosis so acutely that he
had repeatedly been judged unable to make medical decisions for himself. His
mother made numerous attempts to pull him out of the trial due to the
deterioration of his mental health. The case generated international outrage over
his treatment by the University of Minnesota, which conducted the trial, and led to
the passing of a new law in 2009 by the state legislature. For more on this, read a
heart-breaking, detailed account here.
2005: A study by Tufts University found that Crestor, a cholesterol drug by
AstraZeneca, could cause kidney failure and other side effects. The rate of kidney
damage was found to be 75 times higher in some patients taking Crestor
compared to other statins (drugs used to treat cholesterol). The previous year, the
Public Citizen’s Health Research Group, a USA based watchdog, had called for an
investigation of AstraZeneca for reporting these side effects months later than
required. In the wake of the study, the company was forced to publish warnings
about these side effects. Despite campaigning by concerned groups, the drug
remains on the market.
2010: Another scandal involving Seroquel saw AstraZeneca fined $520 million for
the way it marketed its antipsychotic drug. The acting U.S. attorney for the Eastern
District of Pennsylvania said elderly people, veterans and prisoners were treated as
“guinea pigs”. According to ABC News, the company paid kickbacks to doctors and
promoted the drugs for a variety of illnesses for which it had never been tested,
including Alzheimer’s and depression. The drug was also prescribed to children
even though it had not been approved for their use.
2016: AstraZeneca was fined $5.5 million by the US government for bribing doctors
in China and Russia. Health website Statnews reported that the US Security and
Exchange Commission (SEC) charged that AstraZeneca sales and marketing staff,
along with “multiple levels” of company managers at subsidiaries, “designed and
authorized several schemes” to convey gifts, conference expenses, travel and cash,
in order to influence purchases of AstraZeneca drugs.