AstraZeneca plc is a British-Swedish multinational pharmaceutical and biologics company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It has a portfolio of products for major disease areas including cancer, cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, infection, neuroscience, respiratory and inflammation.
AstraZeneca was founded in 1999 through the merger of the and the UK-based Zeneca Group and Astra AB, a Swedish company founded 100 years earlier by 400 doctors and apothecaries. Today, the company’s primary focus includes treatments for major disease areas such as cancer, neuroscience, and inflammation.
In 2014, AstraZeneca rejected an acquisition offer from Pfizer for £55 per share, which valued the company at $117 billion. The takeover would have catapulted U.S.-based Pfizer to become the world’s biggest drug maker, and would also have been the biggest foreign takeover of a British company had it gone through. The deal faced intense opposition from numerous British politicians and scientists, with one Member of Parliament calling Pfizer “rapists”, tweeting, “(Prime Minister David) Cameron dare not stop Pfizer because he dare not offend the U.S. in any way. Roll up rapists.”
