AstraZeneca reveals plan to reinforce product pipeline

AstraZeneca has told of new strategies in an attempt to bolster its product pipeline, which has been a concern of investors in recent times following the withdrawal from development of Galida, an antidiabetic, and Exanta, once touted as a replacement for warfarin.

The UK’s second largest drugs manufacturer intends to expand the potential of existing key products like Seroquel and Crestor, while continuing to enhance research and development capabilities by investing in biological therapeutics and productivity improvements. It also said that “excellent progress” was being made on externally sourced drugs from smaller research-based pharmaceutical companies.

The company said that “strong performance” in the last two years is something that can be sustained by increasing sales, while “absorbing” the impact of generic competition.

David Brennan, AstraZeneca’s chief executive officer, remarked: “We know what it will take to continue to deliver a strong performance over the next five years. While new products will play a role, many of the ingredients for continuing our momentum can be found in our current product range.

“Effective lifecycle management and commercial excellence in support of key growth products such as Symbicort, Crestor and Seroquel should continue to drive top line growth.”

“This will give us the potential to grow sales in line with projected market growth and, in conjunction with continued cost discipline, the delivery of earnings growth ahead of sales is within our reach,” he added.

AstraZeneca’s product pipeline is relatively sparse for the medium-term, with five new products in phase III development. However, it has over 30 compounds in phase I and II trials.

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