Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2: Welcome back everyone. Now. AstraZeneca recently became the first British
Speaker 2: company to reach a market value of more than two
Speaker 2: hundred billion dollars or actually two hundred billion pounds, with
Speaker 2: a big bed on cancer drugs, helping to drive a
Speaker 2: rally in the pharma giant. Now shares lower today after
Speaker 2: a lung cancer drug it's developing with partner showed mixed
Speaker 2: results in a late stage trial. Now joining us for
Speaker 2: an exclusive conversation on that, but also much more. Ascal Soio,
Speaker 2: the chief executive of Astrazenica, Pascal Stolio, as always, thank
Speaker 2: you so much for giving us a little bit of
Speaker 2: your busy schedule. Now, you published some disappointing results overnight
Speaker 2: in this late stage trial of lung Trunker, which you
Speaker 2: could still develop in the future. But are you worried
Speaker 2: that this will affect your numbers?
Speaker 1: Good morning, consent.
Speaker 3: It won't affect our numbers because actually, first of about
Speaker 3: the study, I think it's important to remember it was
Speaker 3: a second studying, second third line meta studying lund cancer.
Speaker 3: That study is actually positive and in the group of
Speaker 3: patients where we're looking together, a coward so called non squaremas.
Speaker 1: We delivered a two months improvement.
Speaker 3: In of all survival versus a very active standard treatment
Speaker 3: Taxo teal, which hasn't been betted by bidden by any
Speaker 3: other therapy for the last twenty years or so.
Speaker 1: So a very strong set.
Speaker 3: Of results, not as perfect as we would have liked,
Speaker 3: and of course as a result, people are questioning what
Speaker 3: kind of a power we will get. We're always looking
Speaker 3: at targeting patients who will benefit the most, delivered better
Speaker 3: for his benefits, so we've also been developing an AI
Speaker 3: based test that will enable us to treat the patients
Speaker 3: who will deliver the most benefit, the so called drop
Speaker 3: two positive patients.
Speaker 1: We have a receptor on their.
Speaker 3: So with this we believe that we have a way
Speaker 3: forward and should really not affect our numbers in a
Speaker 3: long term.
Speaker 2: So you still have this ambition of reaching eighty billion
Speaker 2: dollars actually in sales by twenty thirty. Do you think
Speaker 2: you'll get approval of some kind of other approval for
Speaker 2: this drug.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think we will get an approval.
Speaker 3: The question that people are debating is what kind of
Speaker 3: approval we get initially. In second line, I think it's
Speaker 3: important to remember that the vast majority of the potential
Speaker 3: of this medicine is in the first line metasthetic lung cancer,
Speaker 3: which we are developing right now. We have several studies
Speaker 3: and we have really good hope and good reason to
Speaker 3: believe those studies will be positive. We also have presented
Speaker 3: the World Long Congress a study called neo Course which
Speaker 3: is in earlier lines. Again that was very encouraging, very positive.
Speaker 3: So the big potential is in the earlier lines of
Speaker 3: treatment and that is going very well, So that is
Speaker 3: not affecting our confidence in the drug. And beyond this rug,
Speaker 3: we have many other of.
Speaker 2: Course, Vesca, you're one of the industry leaders, of course
Speaker 2: in oncology, but also cardiovascular and respiratory. What other areas
Speaker 2: do you earmark for growth and do you have the
Speaker 2: internal capabilities of doing it alone or are you targeting
Speaker 2: M and A.
Speaker 3: Actually we can do it alone and our focuses can
Speaker 3: sell of course, as we just talked about, and in cancer,
Speaker 3: we are developing a whole range of products on tibioty
Speaker 3: drug conjugates by specific imminotherapies, and importantly we're also working
Speaker 3: very hard on cell therapy, and cell therapy is opening
Speaker 3: the potential to cure some cancers. We're also working on
Speaker 3: technologies that he set engages, so a whole range of
Speaker 3: new technologies that will improve the.
Speaker 1: Treatment of cancer.
Speaker 3: Outside of cancer, we're working on cardiovascular disease metabolism. We
Speaker 3: have a whole range of products to treat obesity and
Speaker 3: metabolic diseases. And then we're also working on respiratory iminology
Speaker 3: and anually on were diseases. So you can see that
Speaker 3: a whole portfolio goes much beyond data or the product
Speaker 3: we are just talking about a minute ago.
Speaker 2: There have been a lot of questions, of course about
Speaker 2: your side in Liverpool. Has the government reduced state aid
Speaker 2: available for this investment.
Speaker 1: We are still in discussion with the government.
Speaker 3: We are committed to this investment, but of course you
Speaker 3: know we have to wait for the final conclusion of
Speaker 3: this discussion.
Speaker 1: I can't say much more at this point.
Speaker 3: It is an important investment for us in the UK,
Speaker 3: of course, an important investment for pandemic preparedness, but you know,
Speaker 3: I can't say much more at this point.
Speaker 2: Is the UK lacking incentives for manufacturing and R and
Speaker 2: D investments in general, or is this also something that's
Speaker 2: under negotiation.
Speaker 3: I think the government has really been making quite a
Speaker 3: number of efforts to attract investment in manufacturing. The bigger
Speaker 3: issue in the UK, quite frankly, is access to since
Speaker 3: pharmaceutical companies want to invest in research and development in
Speaker 3: countries where they believe their medicines will be able to
Speaker 3: add patients, so they will be reimbursed and.
Speaker 1: Patients will be able to benefit.
Speaker 3: And in the recent past access and reinvestment has become
Speaker 3: more and more difficult, not only for US, but for
Speaker 3: other medicines as well, and that's probably the biggest disincentive
Speaker 3: to a pharmaceutical company to commit and invest in the UK.
Speaker 2: Several Astrozenic employees have also been detained in China relation
Speaker 2: to two probes. Are you aware of Astrozeneca actually breaking
Speaker 2: any laws in relation to those investigations.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's something with a very seriously of course.
Speaker 3: It's important though to remember the context of it. It's
Speaker 3: a small number eight nine employees that are affected by
Speaker 3: this investigation. We have twelve thousand field based employees in
Speaker 3: the in China. It's a big country, as we all know.
Speaker 3: We are the largest pharmastical company in China. We have
Speaker 3: sixteen almost seventeen thousand employees twelve thousand in the field,
Speaker 3: so we are looking at a smaller number of people.
Speaker 3: We have found policies complaints for we see with twin people,
Speaker 3: we of course investigate, but it's impossible to have a
Speaker 3: complaints offica being each and every one of our field
Speaker 3: based employee.
Speaker 1: So we are working very closely with the authorities.
Speaker 3: And I think actually what the government is doing is
Speaker 3: not affecting us on it, it's affecting all the companies
Speaker 3: and it's a good thing because we need to really
Speaker 3: make sure that we can operate in a very compliant
Speaker 3: environment in the in in China like.
Speaker 1: Warehouse in the world.
Speaker 2: What are some of the key threads for us Zenneka
Speaker 2: in relation to doing business in China and how can
Speaker 2: you actually mitigate some of those risks.
Speaker 3: Yeah, of course we're all aware of the geopolitical tensions
Speaker 3: between the US and China and particular, so what we
Speaker 3: have been doing, of course follow the laws and regulations
Speaker 3: in the US, in China everywhere, but also we've been
Speaker 3: building our supply Chine in China, so we can supply
Speaker 3: China from China and also supply some emerging markets from China.
Speaker 3: So we have several new investments, manufacturing investments in China
Speaker 3: for many of our new medicines, and in parallel to this,
Speaker 3: we're investing in the US. Recently, we invested in a
Speaker 3: cell serrupy manufacturing plant in the US in Maryland. So
Speaker 3: you can see we're building two supply chains that are
Speaker 3: going to be independent from each other and enabling us
Speaker 3: to supply China on the one hand, in the Western
Speaker 3: world on the other hand.
Speaker 2: Would you ever actually consider spinning off the business in China.
Speaker 1: No, I mean it's a very important part of our company.
Speaker 3: First of all, there are lots of patients who need
Speaker 3: our medicines in China. But also importantly the last three
Speaker 3: four five years, China has become a very important part
Speaker 3: of global innovation in our industry. There are lots of
Speaker 3: new medicines that are invented in China that we can
Speaker 3: licenseing or co develop with Chinese companies that will benefit
Speaker 3: people around the world. So we believe that China will
Speaker 3: remain an important part of our company, not only because
Speaker 3: we sell there, but also because we manufacture export and
Speaker 3: also can source innovation from China that will benefit the
Speaker 3: entire world.
Speaker 2: You mentioned the US, What do you need from the
Speaker 2: next president of the United States of America when it
Speaker 2: comes to healthcare.
Speaker 3: Yes, I was listening to Grace Peters, who was with
Speaker 3: you a few minutes ago, and she was talking about policy. Essentially,
Speaker 3: we need policies that will support innovation in our sector,
Speaker 3: innovation in biomedicines, innovation in research and development. The US
Speaker 3: has been the country that has been driving innovation in
Speaker 3: our industry censors for many years, and I believe will
Speaker 3: remain so for a long time to come. China is
Speaker 3: the other big driver of innovation. Unfortunately Europe has been
Speaker 3: falling behind. So what we need is continued investment in
Speaker 3: basic research. We need a continued investment in biotech, in
Speaker 3: startups through private investment that is of course incentivized to
Speaker 3: invest in those emerging companies. And finally, we need, of
Speaker 3: course access for medicines, so that is really a key
Speaker 3: part of incentivizing pharmaceutical companies make sure that their medicines
Speaker 3: can actually help patients.
Speaker 2: I mean, looking at your share price, where does the
Speaker 2: market most under estimate Astrasenca.
Speaker 3: I think the market under estimates the strength of our
Speaker 3: portfolio and the growth we can deliver over the next.
Speaker 1: Number of years.
Speaker 3: You know, the pharmaceutical industry is not a very simple
Speaker 3: endeavor we all know, and it's not for the faint hearted.
Speaker 1: And you never will have.
Speaker 3: A linear development. You have ups and downs, and that's
Speaker 3: what we've had in the last ten twelve years. But
Speaker 3: in general we are moving in the right direction. We
Speaker 3: have a verse from portfolio and people are underestimating several
Speaker 3: of the products we have in the portfolio and reacting to,
Speaker 3: you know, events that happened on the day as opposed
Speaker 3: to sometimes looking at the long trend, our long term shoulders.
Speaker 3: You know, they of course look at those events, but
Speaker 3: they keep their eye on the long term, which is,
Speaker 3: you know, where we can be in twenty thirty and beyond,
Speaker 3: and that is clearly a good place because we have
Speaker 3: good development plans and will continue going.
Speaker 2: So, given the setback with Taichi Sankyo, what are you
Speaker 2: most excited about what's coming up in the pipeline?
Speaker 3: Well, I should say that remains a very important product
Speaker 3: for us. It's a setback in time if if if
Speaker 3: it's a setback, I mean, we'll have to see what
Speaker 3: the header decides. But even if we had a more
Speaker 3: limited approval than we're looking for, you know, we don't
Speaker 3: know what we will get. We have to wait for
Speaker 3: the DA but it's a timing issue because these new
Speaker 3: tests we have developed will enable us to expand our
Speaker 3: presents and are using second third line and then we
Speaker 3: have the studies in the first line, and then we
Speaker 3: thanks to this test, we'll go into other indications potentially
Speaker 3: rest of course, but also many others, so that all
Speaker 3: remains an important portfolio about product. Our portfolio antibody drug
Speaker 3: conjugates is very exciting. Our best specifics in oncology are
Speaker 3: very exciting. Our portfolio products in obesity and cardio metabolism
Speaker 3: is also very exciting.
Speaker 1: Sensor up.
Speaker 3: The overall both in oncology and immunology is very exciting.
Speaker 3: So there's a lot of products that really are going
Speaker 3: to change the future of medicine and drive out walls.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for your time today. That was
Speaker 2: Pascal sol Hio, of course, the chief executive of Astrozenega.