CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER’S REVIEW
Valued medicines
At AstraZeneca, we take great pride in our track record of pharmaceutical innovation which spans seven decades and includes the introduction of many world-leading medicines. The key products in our range continue to make a difference for millions of patients around the world every day.
We remain focused on leveraging the full potential of our range and delivered a growth in sales during 2007 despite pricing challenges in key markets in Europe and the US, where payers and healthcare providers have been wrestling with the dual challenge of a growing demand for healthcare as a result of the ageing population and continued public demand for the benefits that modern medicines provide.
Highlights in 2007 included:
- Seroquel XR, the sustained release form of our schizophrenia therapy, was launched in the US. It was also approved for sale in Canada and The Netherlands and the EU mutual recognition process has been completed, paving the way for launches in other European markets in the coming months. Regulatory submissions for Seroquel XR for the treatment of major depressive disorder and generalised anxiety disorder are planned for 2008.
- The atherosclerosis label for our statin, Crestor, has been approved in the US, reflecting its efficacy in slowing the progression of atherosclerosis in adult patients with elevated cholesterol as an adjunct to diet.
- We launched our asthma therapy, Symbicort, in the US and our innovative Symbicort Maintenance and Reliever Therapy (Symbicort SMART) is proving popular with patients in many European countries because, by combining both maintenance and rapid relief therapies in a single inhaler, it puts them more in control of their variable disease.
- Nexium continues to be the strongest performing branded proton pump inhibitor in the US, although the highly competitive market and the challenge of generic omeprazole are both significant. In the emerging markets, Nexium continues to show very strong growth.
- Arimidex remains the product of choice for post-menopausal breast cancer patients and its sales are firmly in line with market growth.
In the emerging markets of Asia, Eastern Europe and Russia, we have continued to build our business focusing on maximising our sales today whilst investing to broaden access to our medicines in future. During the year, we opened a new Process R&D facility in Bangalore, India, to add to the existing R&D facility and we are investing in a new centre for translational medicine in Shanghai, which will focus on researching medicines especially designed to help patients in China.
In Japan, the world’s second largest pharmaceutical market, we are working with the authorities to increase the range of medicines available to Japanese patients. Mutual recognition of research data generated in other Asian countries means that we are able to progress more quickly with dedicated studies for these markets.
Inevitably, as a successful, research-based pharmaceutical company, this year we have received further challenges to some of our patents, the details of which are set out elsewhere in this report. We will maximise the value of our intellectual property and will vigorously defend our patents in order to protect the many years of research, and the considerable investment, which have delivered the medicines to which those patents relate.
