AstraZeneca Annual Report and Form 20-F Information 2008

Chief Executive Officer's Review

We are committed to delivering on our strategy and to changing the way we work so we are prepared for the future. 2008 was a year of both opportunity and challenge for the Company. I am proud to report that we delivered some significant successes against a tough background of slowing growth rates in Established Markets, ever-greater pressure on costs and increasing challenge from generic manufacturers.

Our strategy is clear. At its simplest, it is to create enduring value for shareholders by delivering medicines that make a meaningful difference to patient health.

Our vision is to be an innovation-driven, research-based pharmaceutical company focused on human health and capable of delivering a consistent flow of innovative and differentiated products to patients in markets around the world. To achieve this we will make sustained investment in an industry-leading, externally networked R&D organisation with expertise in both small molecule and large molecule technologies. We will commercialise our products rapidly and globally at affordable prices through a world class sales and marketing organisation operating in both primary and specialty care markets.

Underpinning our research and commercial operations will be a supply chain and operating infrastructure, through which we are aiming to achieve industry-leading efficiency.

Above all, we will seek to apply an investment discipline to all of our activities that attaches equal weight to delivering patient health and creating shareholder wealth. We will only invest shareholders’ funds where we see attractive returns and the opportunity to create enduring shareholder value.

To help the organisation maintain our focus on execution, our strategy targets four main priorities.