History

Astra AB of Sweden. Zeneca Group PLC of the UK. Two separate, long-established companies, each with a success story of their own. Yet there were two fundamental qualities they had in common: a passion for science and a clear vision of the pharmaceutical industry. The possibilities were too good to pass up. So, on April 6th, 1999, Astra and Zeneca "connected", combining their considerable resources and deep pools of talent. A new success story had begun.

From the onset, AstraZeneca's overarching goal was to deliver greater long-term growth and enduring shareholder value. And we're doing it through three distinct avenues:

Global power and reach in sales and marketing

• We have the ability to deliver the potential of existing and future products through the power and reach of a combined global sales and marketing resource.
• Because of the complementary nature of our products, we have the capabilities of widespread class coverage in key therapy areas, such as cardiovascular and respiratory disease.
• We have a major primary care presence, particularly in gastrointestinal, cardiovascular and respiratory medicine.
• We've taken a leading position in numerous specialist/hospital markets, including oncology and anesthesia.

Stronger R&D platform for innovation-led growth

• We invest substantial expenditures in research and development (R&D), the lifeblood of the pharmaceutical industry.
• Unified, we have an even stronger development pipeline.
• Our potential is augmented for further strengthening the pipeline by enhanced discovery and development capability through greater scale and focus on selected areas and technologies.

Greater financial strategic flexibility

• Our financial strength and scale gives AstraZeneca's management greater strategic flexibility to drive long-term earnings growth.
• We're maintaining substantial operational efficiencies that result in cost savings.

Just look at the strength of our history to see a strong future come into view. Be a part of that future.