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AstraZeneca has been one of Britain\u2019s industrial success stories<\/p>\n
MARY TURNER FOR THE TIMES<\/p>\n
When the government launched its Life Sciences Sector Plan on July 16 the tone was buoyant and the aim impressive: to turn \u201ccutting-edge research into real-world results: new treatments, faster diagnosis, and more lives saved\u201d. The \u201croadmap\u201d to these sunlit uplands was constructed around three \u201ccore pillars\u201d: to enable world-class scientific research and development; to attract global capital and grow UK companies; and to deliver better outcomes for patients in a more modern, preventive healthcare system.<\/p>\n
Few would dare to argue with these noble aspirations. And the UK\u2019s life sciences industry, which is worth \u00a3108 billion and employs more than 300,000 people, has indeed long been seen as a jewel in the country\u2019s economic crown. But the shadow of potential decline has fallen across it in recent years, with a cautionary tale attached: its name is AstraZeneca.<\/p>\n
Britain\u2019s most valuable public company, presently worth \u00a3170 billion, has deep roots in this country: it was the result of a 1999 merger between Sweden\u2019s Astra and the UK\u2019s Zeneca Group, itself an offshoot of the British chemical behemoth ICI. Its chief executive, Sir Pascal Soriot, in situ since 2012, has shown a strong commitment to nurturing scientific discovery. That yielded its most dramatic benefits during the Covid-19 pandemic when AstraZeneca\u2019s vaccine<\/a>, developed with Oxford University, was a British success story.<\/p>\n Yet since then its relations with the UK government have not all been smooth sailing. In 2021, as a response to Britain\u2019s \u201cdiscouraging\u201d taxes, the company located a \u00a3320 million new factory in Ireland rather than England. Sir Pascal was also unhappy with the decision by Nice, England\u2019s drug-approval body, to reject the firm\u2019s breast cancer drug Enhertu<\/a> on cost grounds, despite its adoption in Scotland. Perhaps the most dispiriting episode, however, involved AstraZeneca\u2019s decision to abandon a proposed \u00a3450 million expansion of its vaccine plant in Speke, near Liverpool, after the incoming Labour government threatened to slash the subsidies it was previously offered. There have been worrisome murmurs of relisting in the US.<\/p>\n