{"id":61335,"date":"2026-10-29T10:23:06","date_gmt":"2026-10-29T07:23:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thesauditimes.net\/en\/?p=61335"},"modified":"2026-10-29T10:23:06","modified_gmt":"2026-10-29T07:23:06","slug":"astrazeneca","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesauditimes.net\/en\/astrazeneca\/","title":{"rendered":"AstraZeneca: the British-Swedish drugmaker behind cancer and rare disease medicines"},"content":{"rendered":"

AstraZeneca PLC is a global biopharmaceutical company formed in 1999 through the merger of Astra AB of Sweden and Zeneca Group PLC of the UK. Its medicines are sold in more than 125 countries, and its shares trade in London, Stockholm and New York.<\/p>\n

The group is in focus because of its growth plan. It reported total revenue of $58.7 billion for 2025 and has set an ambition of $80 billion by 2030, with about 20 new medicines expected to launch before then.<\/p>\n

\"AstraZeneca:
AstraZeneca offices on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus in Cambridge, UK, 2026. Photo: Mr Ignavy, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Overview and Founding<\/h3>\n

The Swedish side of the company dates back to 1913, when a group of doctors and apothecaries founded Astra AB in S\u00f6dert\u00e4lje. Astra later set up research sites in Gothenburg in 1954 and in Lund in 1955.<\/p>\n

The British side grew out of Imperial Chemical Industries, which created ICI Pharmaceuticals in 1957. In 1993 ICI demerged its pharmaceuticals business, which became Zeneca Group PLC.<\/p>\n

Both companies had already built a presence abroad before they joined. ICI opened a factory in Macclesfield in 1966 and expanded into the United States in 1972, while Astra agreed in 1982 to work with MSD in the American market. Zeneca set up its first presence in China in 1993.<\/p>\n

Astra and Zeneca merged in 1999 to form AstraZeneca. The company keeps its headquarters in the UK and runs major research centres in Cambridge, Gaithersburg, Boston, Gothenburg, Shanghai and Beijing.<\/p>\n

Key Milestones<\/h3>\n