AstraZeneca Annual Report and Form 20-F Information 2008

Directors’ Report

In this Directors’ Report, we have applied the best practice principles of an Operating and Financial Review and, to demonstrate how we have performed our duty to promote the success of the Company, we discuss the main trends and factors underlying the development, performance and position of AstraZeneca in 2008.

We summarise the opportunities and challenges of our business environment, including the world market for pharmaceuticals and biological products; the competitive and regulatory environment; and the principal risks and uncertainties we face, as well as the importance of intellectual property rights.

We describe our strategy for creating enduring value for shareholders, patients and other stakeholders and explain how our progress towards achieving our strategic goals is measured.

We provide an overview of the resources, skills and capabilities that we have in place and how they are aligned to the achievement of our goals. This includes information about the ways in which our medicines are differentiated and effective, as well as details of our research and development, sales and marketing, and supply and manufacturing activities worldwide. We also describe our commitment to ensuring that our global workforce continues to be motivated and clear about what is required of them as we drive the continued success of our business.

In the Financial Review, we report our global financial results for 2008 with our comparative 2007 results and we highlight our key accounting policies and our approach to financial risk management.

In the Geographical Review, we report on our global financial performance at a product level and in different geographical areas, with our comparative 2007 performance.

The Therapy Area Review provides additional information about our areas of interest, including why we are focused on particular diseases, our goals and our progress towards achieving them. As part of this, we report in detail on our pipeline of potential new products and life-cycle developments of our marketed medicines.

We highlight the importance of leadership, effective decision-making and risk management, and include a summary of our business organisation and the various responsibilities and processes in place for ensuring the integrity of financial information, internal controls and risk management.

As a global, research-based pharmaceutical company, we face a diverse range of risks and uncertainties that may affect our business. We work continuously to ensure that we have appropriate and effective processes in place for identifying, assessing and managing these risks, in line with our strategic objectives, the material needs of our stakeholders and our core values. In the Risk section, we describe our key risk management and assurance mechanisms, together with the principal areas of risks and uncertainties that we currently consider to be material to our business. Where relevant, specific risks and uncertainties are also discussed at various points throughout this Directors’ Report.

Stakeholder expectations of the industry regarding corporate responsibility continue to vary from country to country. Nevertheless, a global business means global visibility and there are a number of issues relating to our business that have the potential to impact our reputation anywhere in the world. These include patient safety, access to medicines, sales and marketing practices, research ethics, employment practices and the environment. We provide information throughout this Directors’ Report about our position on key issues, and about our approach to managing the challenges and opportunities associated with our corporate responsibility to ensure that we continue to be led by our core values to achieve sustainable success. Further information about our commitment to responsible business, our position on the issues and our performance is available on our website, astrazeneca.com/responsibility.

The Shareholder Information and Corporate Information sections are incorporated into the Directors' Report.

The Glossary and the Market Definition Table provide a useful guide to terms, as well as acronyms and abbreviations, used in this Directors’ Report.

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