lse azn nasdaq stockholm azn nyse azn industry pharmaceutical biotechnology predecessor astra ab zeneca group plc founded april 6 1999 ; 17 years ago 1999 04 06 headquarters cambridge england area served global key people leif johansson chairman pascal soriot ceo products pharmaceutical products revenue us 24.708 billion 2015 1 operating income us 4.114 billion 2015 1 net income us 2.826 billion 2015 1 total assets us 60.12 billion 2016 2 number of employees 50 000 2014 3 subsidiaries medimmune website www.astrazeneca.com astrazeneca plc 4 is an english swedish multinational pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical company . in 2013 it moved its headquarters to cambridge england and concentrated its r & d in three sites cambridge gaithersburg maryland location of medimmune for work on biopharmaceuticals and m lndal near gothenburg in sweden for research on traditional chemical drugs . 5 in 2015 it was the eighth largest drug company in the world based on sales revenue . 6 astrazeneca has a portfolio of products for major disease areas including cancer cardiovascular gastrointestinal infection neuroscience respiratory and inflammation . 7 the company was founded in 1999 through the merger of the swedish astra ab and the english zeneca group 8 9 itself formed by the demerger of the pharmaceutical operations of imperial chemical industries in 1993 . it has made numerous corporate acquisitions including of cambridge antibody technology in 2006 medimmune in 2007 spirogen in 2013 and definiens by medimmune in 2014 . astrazeneca has a primary listing on the london stock exchange and is a constituent of the ftse 100 index . it has secondary listings on the new york stock exchange and the omx exchange . contents 1 history 1.1 2000 to 2006 1.2 2007 2012 the patent cliff and subsequent acquisitions 1.3 2013 restructuring and beyond 1.3.1 2013 1.3.2 2014 1.3.3 2015 1.4 acquisition history 2 operations 3 products 4 orphan drugs 5 senior management 6 controversies 6.1 seroquel 6.2 nexium 6.3 bildman fraud 6.4 transfer mispricing 6.5 doping in cycling 7 see also 8 notes and references 9 external links history edit astra ab was founded in 1913 in s dert lje sweden by 400 doctors and apothecaries . 10 in 1993 the british chemicals company ici demerged its pharmaceuticals businesses and its agrochemicals and specialties businesses to form zeneca group plc. 11 finally in 1999 astra and zeneca group merged to form astrazeneca plc with its headquarters in london . 11 in 1999 astrazeneca identified as a new location for the company s us base the fairfax plus site in north wilmington delaware . 12 2000 to 2006 edit in 2002 its drug iressa was approved in japan as monotherapy for non small cell lung cancer . 13 on 3 january 2004 dr robert nolan a former director of astrazeneca formed the management team of zi medical . 14 in 2005 the company acquired kudos pharmaceuticals a uk biotech company for 120m 15 and entered into an anti cancer collaboration agreement with astex . 16 it also announced that it had become a diamond member of the pennsylvania bio commerce organisation . 17 in 2006 following a collaborative relationship begun in 2004 astrazeneca acquired cambridge antibody technology for 702 million . 18 2007 2012 the patent cliff and subsequent acquisitions edit in february 2007 astrazeneca agreed to buy arrow therapeutics a company focused on the discovery and development of anti viral therapies for 150 million . 19 astrazeneca s pipeline and patent cliff was the subject of much speculation in april 2007 leading to pipeline boosting collaboration and acquisition activities . 20 a few days later astrazeneca acquired us company medimmune for about 15.2 billion to gain flu vaccines and an anti viral treatment for infants ; 21 astrazeneca subsequently consolidated all of its biologics operations into a dedicated biologics division called medimmune . 22 in 2010 astrazeneca acquired novexel corp an antiobiotics discovery company formed in 2004 as a spin off of the sanofi aventis anti infectives division . astra acquired the experimental antibiotic nxl 104 cef104 caz avi through this acquisition . 23 24 in 2011 astrazeneca acquired guangdong beikang pharmaceutical company a chinese generics business . 25 in february 2012 astrazeneca and amgen announced a collaboration on treatments for inflammatory diseases . 26 then in april 2012 astrazeneca acquired ardea biosciences another biotechnology company for 1.26 billion . 27 in june 2012 astrazeneca and bristol myers squibb announced a two stage deal for the joint acquisition of the biotechnology company amylin pharmaceuticals . 28 29 it was agreed that bristol myers squibb would acquire amylin for 5.3 billion in cash and the assumption of 1.7 billion in debt with astrazeneca then paying 3.4 billion in cash to bristol myers squibb and amylin being folded into an existing diabetes joint venture between astrazeneca and bristol myers squibb . 29 2013 restructuring and beyond edit 2013 edit in march 2013 astrazeneca announced plans for a major corporate restructuring including the closure of its research and development activities at alderley park investment of 500 million in the construction of a new research and development facility in cambridge and the concentration of r & d in three locations cambridge gaithersburg maryland location of medimmune where it will work on biotech drugs and m lndal near gothenburg in sweden for research on traditional chemical drugs . 5 astrazeneca also announced that it would move its corporate headquarters from london to cambridge in 2016 . 30 31 that announcement included the announcement that it would cut 1 600 jobs ; three days later it announced it would cut an additional 2 300 jobs . 32 33 it also announced that it would focus on three therapeutic areas respiratory inflammation & autoimmunity ; cardiovascular & metabolic disease ; and oncology . 34 in october 2013 astrazeneca announced it would acquire biotech oncology company spirogen for around 440 million . 35 2014 edit on 19 may 2014 astrazeneca rejected a final offer from pfizer of 55 per share which valued the company at 69.4 billion 117 billion . the companies had been meeting since january 2014 . if the takeover had proceeded pfizer would have become the world s biggest drug maker . the transaction would also have been the biggest foreign takeover of a british company . many in britain including politicians and scientists had opposed the deal . 36 in july 2014 the company entered into a deal with almirall to acquire its subsidiary almirall sofotec and its lung treatments including the copd drug eklira . the 2.1 billion deal included an allocation of 1.2 billion for development in the respiratory franchise one of astrazeneca s three target therapeutic areas announced the year before . in august 2014 the company announced it had entered into a three year collaboration with mitsubishi tanabe pharma on diabetic nephropathy . 37 in september 2014 the company would join forces with eli lilly in developing and commercialising its candidate bace inhibitor azd3292 used for the treament of alzheimers . the deal could yield up to 500 million for the company . 38 in november 2014 the company s biologics r & d operation medimmune agreed to acquire definiens for more than 150 million . the company also began a phase i ii trial collaboration with pharmacyclics and janssen biotech investigating combination treatments . 39 also in november of the same year the company agreed to sell its lipodystrophy treatment business to aegerion pharmaceuticals for more than 325 million . 40 in december the company received accelerated fda approval for olaparib in the treatment of women with advanced ovarian cancer who have a brca genetic mutation . a major criterion governing the drugs approval was on average its ability to shrink tumours in patients for 7.9 months . 41 2015 edit in february the company announced it would acquire the us and canadian rights to actavis branded respiratory drug business for an initial sum of 600 million . 42 later in the same month the company announced it would partner with orca pharmaceuticals to develop retinoic acid related orphan nuclear receptor gamma inhibitors for use in the treatment of a number of autoimmune diseases which could generate up to 122.5 million for orca . 43 the company also announced their plan to spend 40 million creating a new subsidiary focused on small molecule anti infectives primarily in the research of the gyrase inhibitor azd0914 which is currently in phase ii for the treatment of gonorrhea . 44 in mid march the company announced it would co commercialise naloxegol along with daiichi sankyo in a deal worth up to 825 million . 45 towards the end of april the company announced a number of collaborations worth an estimated 1.8 billion ; firstly to develop and commercialise medi4736 with celgene for use against non hodgkin s lymphoma myelodysplastic syndromes and multiple myeloma with astrazeneca receiving 450 million . the second of two deals is an agreement to study a combination treatment of medi4736 and innate pharma s phase ii anti nkg2a antibody iph2201 for up to 1.275 billion . the company s medimmune arm also launched collaborative clinical trials with juno therapeutics investigating combination treatments for cancer . 46 the trials will assess combinations of medi4736 and one of juno therapeutics cd19 directed chimeric antigen receptor t cell candidates . 47 in late june the company announced it has entered into a partnership agreement with eolas therapeutics on the eolas orexin 1 receptor antagonist eora program for smoking cessation and other treatments . 48 in july the company announced it would sell off its rights to entocort budesonide to tillotts pharma for 215 million . 49 in july 2015 genzyme announced it would acquire the rare cancer drug caprelsa vandetanib from astrazeneca for up to 300 million . 50 in august the company announced it has acquired the global rights to develop and commercialise heptares therapeutics drug candidate htl 1071 which focuses on blocking the adenosine a2a receptor in a deal worth up to 510 million . 51 in the same month the company s medimmune subsidiary acquire exclusive rights to inovio pharmaceuticals ino 3112 immunotherapy currently in phase i ii under an agreement which could net more than 727.5 million for inovio . ino 3112 targets human papillomavirus types 16 and 18 . 52 in september valeant licensed brodalumab from the company for up to 445 million . 53 54 on the 6th of november it was reported that astrazeneca acquired zs pharma for 2.7 billion . 55 in december the company announced its intention to acquire the respiratory portfolio of takeda pharmaceutical namely alvesco and omnaris for 575 million 56 a day later the company announced it had taken a 55 % majority stake in acerta for 4 billion . as part of the transaction the company will gain commercial rights to acerta s irreversible oral bruton s tyrosine kinase inhibitor acalabrutinib acp 196 which is currently in phase iii development for b cell blood cancers and in phase i or ii clinical trials in solid tumours . 57 acquisition history edit the following is an illustration of the company s major mergers and acquisitions and historical predecessors 58 astrazeneca astra ab merged 1999 astra founded 1913 tika acq 1939 zeneca merged 1999 zeneca spun off from imperial chemical industries 1993 salick health care acq 1996 ishihara sangyo kaisha us fungicide operations acq 1997 kudos pharmaceuticals acq 2005 cambridge antibody technology acq 2006 aptein inc acq 1998 arrow therapeutics acq 2007 medimmune acq 2007 definiens 59 acq 2014 novexel corp acq 2010 guangdong beikang pharmaceutical company acq 2011 ardea biosciences acq 2012 amylin pharmaceuticals acq 2012 jointly with bristol myers squibb spirogen acq 2013 pearl therapeutics 60 acq 2013 omthera pharmaceuticals 61 acq 2013 bought out bristol myers squibb s share of joint diabetes assets 2013 62 entasis therapeutics 63 spun off 2015 zs pharma acq 2015 operations edit the astrazeneca r & d facility in m lndal sweden astrazeneca develops manufactures and sells pharmaceutical and