AstraZeneca: The $117B Pfizer Rejection and Nexium's Mirror Molecule

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AstraZeneca was formed in 1999 by merging Sweden's Astra AB, founded in 1913 by doctors and apothecaries, with Britain's Zeneca, spun out of Imperial Chemical Industries in 1993. From 2013 CEO Pascal Soriot cut jobs and focused research on three hubs, Cambridge, Gothenburg and Gaithersburg, Maryland, including a $1 billion Cambridge discovery center by Herzog & de Meuron for more than 2,000 scientists. In 2014 the board rejected a $117 billion takeover bid from Pfizer, then bought growth: MedImmune for over $15 billion in 2007 had brought biologics, and Alexion Pharmaceuticals for $39 billion in 2021 brought rare diseases.

In early 2026 AstraZeneca bought Boston AI firm Modella AI, licensed kidney drug candidates from China's CSPC for up to $1.77 billion, and moved its U.S. listing from Nasdaq to the NYSE after nearly $59 billion in 2025 revenue. Merger talks with Bristol Myers Squibb in August 2026, at valuations near $400 billion, did not produce a deal. Its record includes Nexium, a purified mirror-image version of Prilosec patented as the original neared expiry, and a $520 million 2010 settlement over off-label marketing of the antipsychotic Seroquel. In late 2024 AstraZeneca China president Leon Wang was detained in a corruption probe that included claims staff falsified genetic tests to win reimbursement for the lung cancer drug Tagrisso.

• In 2015 the company underwrote a Cambridge to Gothenburg flight, reserving 20 of 32 seats four days a week.
• Astra USA chief Lars Bildman was fired and jailed, and under the faithless servant doctrine he forfeited his salary and bonuses for the period of his disloyalty.
• COVID-19 vaccine contracts with the UK and EU, signed a day apart and both built on best reasonable efforts language, set off a supply dispute.
• Its Chinese unit faced backlash in 2008 for a slow donation after the Sichuan earthquake.
• In 2024 the NHS blocked the breast cancer drug Enhertu, priced at over £117,000 per course, which extended life by about five months.