Nordic Life Science 1
TOP STORIES BUSINESS Arimidex and Casodex in Euro
pe and certain additional countries to Juvisé Pharmaceuticals (upfront payment of $181 million). Seroquel and Seroquel XR are used primarily to treat schizophrenia and bipolar disorders and Arimidex and Casodex are used primarily to treat breast and prostate cancer – they have all lost their compound protection in these regions. AstraZeneca’s headquarter in Shanghai Color amet this B I G PH A RMA This year also began with the news that AstraZeneca will recover the global rights to brazikumab (formerly MEDI2070), a monclonal antibody targeting IL33, from Allergan. The company has also agreed to sell the global commercial rights to Inderal, Tenormin, Tenoretic, Zestril and Zestoretic to Atnahs Pharma. In addition, 2019 ended and 2020 began with a number of approvals and steps forward, and backwards, in the company’s drug development. LAST YEAR ENDED WITH AN INCREASED PRESENCE IN CHINA AND A KNIGHTHOOD FOR THE PHARMA GIANT. LET’S SEE WHAT 2020 WILL BRING. N NOVEMBER 2019 AstraZeneca announced a large-scale initiative in China with the purpose to advance global R&D for innovative new medicines. The initiative includes the creation of a Global R&D Centre and an Artificial intelligence (AI) Innovation Centre, both located in Shanghai. The Global R&D Centre will have a primary focus on diseases that are prevalent in China and other parts of Asia. It will also focus on advancing global medicine development and life-cycle management programs and create new partnerships within China’s emerging ecosystem. The Centre will more than double AstraZeneca’s Shanghai R&D headcount to around 1,000. The AI Innovation Centre will aim to accelerate the delivery of medicines to patients and it 18 NORDICLIFESCIENCE.ORG will also focus on collaboration with tech companies and local start-ups to develop new solutions for patients. The initiative also includes the creation of a Healthcare Industrial Fund together with China International Capital Corporation Limited (CICC). The fund will seek to drive innovation in China’s healthcare system, its target size is $1 billion and as a first step it will support domestic companies and partners, as well as international companies looking to establish a presence in China. Before the year ended the company also divested the rights to Seroquel and Seroquel XR in Europe, Russia, US and Canada to Cheplapharm (upfront payment of $213 million) and the rights to Another AstraZeneca news story, which came out just around the Christmas holidays, was the announcement that its EVP of BioPharmaceuticals R&D, Mene Pangalos, was awarded a knighthood by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second in the New Year 2020 Honors List in recognition of his services to UK science. In an interview with his company immediately after the announcement he summarized some of his career’s highlights and he mentioned for example the company’s success with olaparib, the first PARP inhibitor for breast and ovarian cancer, and with osimertinib, their EGFRm inhibitor for non-small cell lung cancer; two examples of cases where he and his colleagues had followed the science and fundamentally believed in the science. “The company has gone from being perceived as having one of the weakest R&D groups in the industry to now being viewed as one of the strongest. I am incredibly proud and privileged to have played a small part in the transformation of our pipeline and our culture,” he said. NLS