AstraZeneca plc (ADR) (AZN) CEO Pascal Soriot Banking On Accelerated Pipeline For Rapid Development

AstraZeneca plc (ADR) (NYSE:AZN) was considered somewhat of a dying flame two years ago, according to its CEO Pascal Soriot, but now the company is set for high paced development in the pharmaceutical industry with several essential new drugs coming up.

In an interview on CNBC, Soriot highlighted that the new and improved AstraZeneca plc (ADR) (NYSE:AZN)’s success is based on two important factors. First and foremost is the accelerated pipeline which enables the company to get its drugs past the testing phases and to the consumers much faster. As an example, he mentioned the new lung cancer medicine that AstraZeneca plc (ADR) (NYSE:AZN) has pushed to the shelves in record time.

“[…] What we have also done over the last two years is that we have accelerated some of the internal projects that were in early development and we are moving them into late stage development. An example of this is 9291. It is a code name for our new product for lung cancer. This is really meeting a key unmet need in lung cancer patients. This product will have moved from phase 1 to filing with FDA and EMa in Europe in less than two and a half years. It probably will be the fastest development ever in the industry, so we have accelerated internal pipelines,” informed Soriot.

The second pillar that is supporting the additional pace of new drugs for AstraZeneca plc (ADR) (NYSE:AZN) is the money that the company is pumping into the early development phase of these drugs. There are two ways that such a boost could occur for companies operating in the pharmaceutical sector. Either through mergers and acquisitions whereby a large concern acquires a smaller company with promising results pertaining to upcoming drugs, or what AstraZeneca plc (ADR) (NYSE:AZN) has done, that is shower its own R&D department with more resources.

” […] The final thing that we have done is that we have rebuilt our early research and early development engine, if you want, and now this is producing results and  those projects are moving through the pipeline […],” said Soriot.

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