Speaker 1: The medicines that we provide are essential medicines, whether it's
Speaker 1: an ecology or rare diseases or cardiovascular So there is
Speaker 1: a public health element here and drug shortages and things
Speaker 1: like that that one needs to take into account, you know,
Speaker 1: if any tariffs were to be to be implied. And
Speaker 1: then also one has to take into account the fact
Speaker 1: that manufacturing and supply chains are not a lift and shift.
Speaker 1: You know, these are highly complex manufacturing supply chains and
Speaker 1: they need to be regulated and quality controlled and approved
Speaker 1: by the FDA, etc. So there's also a time element
Speaker 1: to moving supply chains.
Speaker 2: President Trump there has repeatedly said that TE plans to
Speaker 2: apply levies to the pharmaceutical sector, although it seems to
Speaker 2: seems to be paused for the moment. If there are
Speaker 2: US tariffs on imputed meds into the US, who pays?
Speaker 2: Is it companies? Is it US consumers? You just mentioned
Speaker 2: how complex it would be for firms like Astra Zeneca.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so I would say, you know, again, every company
Speaker 1: is different. We're actually in a very fortunate position for manufacturing,
Speaker 1: so we have thirty one manufacturing slits globally. Over the
Speaker 1: last several years, we've actually been manufacturing, investing in manufacturing
Speaker 1: separately in China, you know, in the US, in Europe
Speaker 1: and our manufacturing is fairly segregated. So the product we
Speaker 1: manufacture in China is for China and emerging markets, and
Speaker 1: we have eleven of those thirty one manufacturing sites in
Speaker 1: the US. The vast majority of the product that we
Speaker 1: that we sell in the US is actually manufactured domestically.
Speaker 1: There is a minority of product that we do import
Speaker 1: from Europe into the US. However, as you know, for
Speaker 1: pharmaceutical product, we always maintain dual sources of supply, so
Speaker 1: that will require you know, if there were caraffs put
Speaker 1: on Europe, that would require some sort of measure of
Speaker 1: changing those supply chains. But that's a process that we've
Speaker 1: already started to rebalance the amount that comes from Europe
Speaker 1: versus the US for those minority of products.
Speaker 2: Pascal Soyo, who was speaking to Bloomberg, also talked a
Speaker 2: bit about the innovation in your sector, the innovation being
Speaker 2: mostly paid for by America, Europe and mitture countries have
Speaker 2: to invest more in farmer innovation. Was his message that
Speaker 2: the model is unbalanced. Too much funding in the United States.
Speaker 2: Do you expect more investment in drug innovation in Europe. Now,
Speaker 2: President Trump's push in the defense sector move the needle
Speaker 2: significantly on spending. Will it do the same in the
Speaker 2: farmer industry.
Speaker 1: Well, that's our hope, but obviously it's not for me
Speaker 1: to comment on. I think Pascal has also talked about
Speaker 1: this concept of health sovereignty, and it's both from making
Speaker 1: sure that patients in Europe have access to the best medicines,
Speaker 1: the best innovation in a timely manner, and that's important
Speaker 1: for the patients and the citizens of that country, but
Speaker 1: also that Europe maintains and spends more on innovation and
Speaker 1: innovative drugs, and that will attract more investments in R
Speaker 1: and D and more investments in manufacturing and so forth.
Speaker 1: So I think it is in the best interest of Europe,
Speaker 1: but obviously that's a policy matter and budget matter that
Speaker 1: they'll need to consider.
Speaker 2: As to drop to plan four hundred and fifty million
Speaker 2: pounds investment here in the UK at the start of
Speaker 2: this year, Chance of rahel Reeves then called Astra one
Speaker 2: of the great companies. You said that in January as
Speaker 2: she was setting out her plans to try to kickstart
Speaker 2: the UK economy saying she was determined to make Britain
Speaker 2: the best place in the world to invest. Are you
Speaker 2: seeing any benefits at all that you could point to
Speaker 2: of this attitude from the government, the need for more
Speaker 2: economic growth, of focus on growth as the Labor government
Speaker 2: has talked about.
Speaker 1: Uh not yet, So we haven't really seen any of
Speaker 1: that yet. I think bescal And has often mentioned an
Speaker 1: example of this, which it relates to in her two
Speaker 1: which I would say, you know, has one of has
Speaker 1: been one of the key innovative drugs in breast cancer,
Speaker 1: probably the best innovation in the last twenty years as
Speaker 1: it relates to breast cancer, and that is not reimbursed
Speaker 1: in the UK. So, you know, it's industrial policy is
Speaker 1: obviously one thing, but obviously access to medicines is also
Speaker 1: important because you know, if you think about where we
Speaker 1: do our studies and where we invest R and D investment,
Speaker 1: you know, eventually at the end of all of that,
Speaker 1: we do want patients in that country to have access
Speaker 1: to medicine. So you know, if we spend all the
Speaker 1: money in research and then patients don't benefit in that country,
Speaker 1: that's very disappointing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So perhaps NHS patients in the UK missing out
Speaker 2: on that. In terms of vaccines, the takeup of important
Speaker 2: vaccines also is falling in the US and here in
Speaker 2: the UK and worldwide. I want to ask you about
Speaker 2: the MMR vaccine, the measles, mumps and Rebella vaccine. Are
Speaker 2: you concerned at astra about the decline in vaccine take
Speaker 2: up in the US and the UK.
Speaker 1: So we don't actually supply vaccines, either childhood or adult vaccines,
Speaker 1: so we're not really in the vaccine business. So from
Speaker 1: a business standpoint, we we don't really have any concern.
Speaker 1: I know it's a public health issue obviously that needs
Speaker 1: to be addressed.
Speaker 3: Coming back to some of the diversification of your supply
Speaker 3: chains that you mentioned earlier as well from a cost
Speaker 3: point of view, At a financial point of view for
Speaker 3: the company, what is the added cost of producing in
Speaker 3: a siloed sort of fashion that you described versus the
Speaker 3: more integrated global supply chains.
Speaker 1: You know, it's hard to say, you know, which is
Speaker 1: more efficient because again every product is different. Components for
Speaker 1: manufacturing do come from from different places. But you also
Speaker 1: have reduced shipping costs for example, you know when you
Speaker 1: have more segregated supply chains. But I also when I
Speaker 1: talked about moving some of the supply and manufacturing from
Speaker 1: Europe to the US. We already have, as I said,
Speaker 1: eleven manufacturing sites, and many of them actually have additional capacity.
Speaker 1: So it would be, you know, some incremental investment for US,
Speaker 1: but you know, very from a marginal standpoint, it would
Speaker 1: not be a lot of investment.