A multinational pharmaceutical and bio pharmaceutical company, AstraZeneca is a British group which was the result of a merger between the Swedish company Astra and Zeneca a UK company. A member of the UK 100 Index, AstraZeneca also has a listing on the London Stock Exchange and a secondary listing on the New York Stock Exchange, as well as the OMX exchange.

AstraZeneca’s roots in the medicinal market stretch back to Astra AB, which was founded in 1913 in Sweden. Before its merger with Astra in 1999, the Zeneca Group was formed out of a number of pharmaceutical companies and specialised businesses, after the British chemical company ICI demerged. Since its formation, AstraZeneca has been at the forefront of pharmaceutical innovation, producing medicine and biotechnology for numerous diseases and ailments, including cancer, inflammation, respiratory difficulties, diabetes and a wide range of immunity and neurological illnesses. Listed amongst its distributed drugs are durvalumab, azd 4831, farxiga, selumetinib, tagrisso, bloom, lyparza, selumetnib, epanova, brilinta and the company distributes under a number of brands that includes Carbocaine, Entocort, Atacand, Credstor, Merrem/Meronem, Citanest, Diprivan Nexium and Losec.

Although the majority of its sales come from overseas, the United States accounting for roughly 30% of its sales, the AstraZeneca headquarters is based in the UK, moving from London to Cambridge, in 2013. Its research and development sites are spread across three sites, with the headquarters located in Warsaw, Poland. The R&D sites firstly include Cambridge. The second is in Mölndal and is responsible for research on more traditional chemical drugs. The third is in Maryland, USA and focuses on biopharmaceuticals. Its largest development area is in Cheshire, Alderley Park with around 4,5000 staff working at the site. Over the years, AstraZeneca has made numerous acquisitions, such as the Cambridge Antibody Technology in 2006, Medlmmune in 2007 and Spirogenin 2013.

To add to its expanding portfolio, the company has an important research and development facility in Sweden. The two sites Mölndal and Södertälje employ around 4,000 members of staff.