AstraZeneca Annual Report and Form 20-F Information 2008

Growing the business

Backed by our 70 year track record of innovation, we have a range of medicines on the market that continue to make a difference in important areas of healthcare – and our commitment to delivering the full benefit of these medicines to patients and maximising their commercial potential remains undiminished.

Highlights of the year included the conclusion of a major study of our statin, Crestor, in the primary prevention area, which demonstrated significant reduction in major cardiovascular events – 44% compared to placebo in men and women with elevated hsCRP and other risk factors but low/normal cholesterol levels, a level of cardiovascular risk reduction not previously seen in a large placebo controlled statin outcome trial.

Seroquel XR has had approvals for acute bipolar depression, acute bipolar mania and as an adjunct therapy to lithium or divalproex for bipolar maintenance treatment in a number of major jurisdictions. These approvals for new indications put Seroquel XR on track to deliver its full therapeutic potential.

In addition, our expertise in regulatory, sales and marketing is also helping to bring to markets outside the US the biological products that MedImmune brought to our range, specifically motavizumab and FluMist.

Despite the challenging market conditions, we have continued to drive high performance and market share gains in our Established Markets and increased sales across North America, Europe and Japan. I believe our sales forces are among the best and we continue to evolve our commercial model to ensure that we stay at the forefront of best practice in meeting the needs of our customers.

We continue to deliver strong, profitable growth in our Emerging Markets, while continuing our strategic investment in these markets aimed at ensuring that we are appropriately resourced to deliver the full potential of the business opportunities in these developing economies. One in seven dollars of our sales now comes from Emerging Markets and as our presence in these countries matures, and as their economies strengthen, I am confident that we will be able to increase further business efficiency and deliver improved profitability in the future.

We received further challenges to some of our patents during the year, the details of which are set out elsewhere in this Report. We will continue to vigorously defend our patents to protect the many years of research and the considerable investment which have delivered the medicines to which those patents relate.