07.11.22
Headquarters: London, UK
twitter.com/astrazeneca
www.astrazeneca.com
Headcount: 76,100
Year Established: 1999
Revenues: $37,417 (+41%)
Net Income: $115 (-96%)
R&D: $9,736 (+62%)
TOP SELLING DRUGS
In 2021 AstraZeneca’s revenue increased 41% to $37.4 billion. Revenue for the year received a major boost from the $4 billion worth of sales generated by the company’s COVID-19 vaccine, Vaxzevria. Over half of sales ($2.2bn) came from emerging markets, excluding China.
In the fourth quarter of 2021, the company delivered approximately 102 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine through COVAX. By the end of 2021, the company and its partners had delivered more than 247 million doses with COVAX to 130 countries. As of February 2022, the number of vaccine doses released climbed to 2.6 billion in over 180 countries. Approximately two-thirds of the doses have gone to low- and middle-income countries.
Another highlight of AstraZeneca’s year was the completion of the $39 billion acquisition of Alexion, announced at the end of 2020. The deal to acquire Boston-based Alexion immediately made AstraZeneca a major player in rare diseases. The new rare diseases segment generated 8% of revenue at $3.1 billion. Key drugs gained in the purchase were Soliris and Ultomiris.
In May 2022, AstraZeneca unveiled plans to open a new site at the heart of the Cambridge, MA, life sciences and innovation hub, that will be a R&D center for AstraZeneca, as well as Alexion’s new corporate headquarters. The site, scheduled for completion in 2026, will have over 570,000 square feet of R&D and commercial space, and room for expansion, and will be in close proximity to several major academic, pharma and biotech institutions.
Oncology medicines, which represent AstraZeneca’s largest business segment, grew 19% year-over-year to $13.7 billion, driven by top seller, Tagrisso, which crossed the $5 billion revenue mark for the first time in 2021.
The DISC will add to AstraZeneca’s R&D presence in more than 40 countries across the globe, including its other research centers in Sweden and the U.S., and development facilities in China and Japan. The company invests more than $7 billion in R&D globally each year, a large part of which takes place in the UK. The center will help further nurture partnerships, develop the next generation of science leaders and accelerate productivity.
Located within the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, the physical proximity of the building’s 19,000 square meter laboratories to leading hospitals, the University of Cambridge, other research institutions and a number of biotech companies will help promote a culture of open partnership and innovation. The company has over 200 active collaborations in the region and more than 2,000 around the world across academia, biotech and industry.
VaxEquity was founded by Imperial College London and Morningside in 2020 based on the innovative saRNA technology developed by Professor Robin Shattock and his colleagues at Imperial College London, UK. saRNA is a new platform for the development of medicines and vaccines which uses similar technology to mRNA but with the added ability to self-amplify, thereby expressing proteins for longer, resulting in higher protein levels per dose level. This has the potential to allow saRNAs to be delivered at lower concentrations than conventional mRNA therapeutics, leading to less frequent or lower dosing, and a broader range of potential applications.
In an acquisition deal, AstraZeneca paid $150 million for Caelum Biosciences, a biotech developing treatments for rare disease, in October 2021. The agreement also provides for additional potential payments to Caelum totaling up to $350 million, payable upon the achievement of regulatory and commercial milestones. At the time of the deal, Caelum had two ongoing Phase 3 clinical trials for CAEL-101, a potentially first-in-class fibril-reactive monoclonal antibody (mAb) for the treatment of light chain (AL) amyloidosis, a rare disease in which misfolded amyloid proteins build up in organs throughout the body, including the heart and kidneys, causing significant organ damage and failure that may ultimately be fatal. CAEL-101 is currently being evaluated in the Cardiac Amyloid Reaching for Extended Survival (CARES) Phase III clinical program in combination with standard-of-care (SoC) therapy in AL amyloidosis. Two parallel Phase III trials in patients with Mayo stage IIIa disease and in patients with Mayo stage IIIb disease respectively are ongoing.
In November 2021, AstraZeneca and Amgen agreed to include AZD8630 in the existing collaboration agreement between the parties. AZD8630 is a human anti-TSLP Fab17 for inhaled delivery and entered Phase I in Q1 2022. AstraZeneca will be the development/regulatory lead, manufacturing lead and commercial lead.
In December 2021, AstraZeneca entered into a new global development and commercialization agreement with Ionis Pharmaceuticals for eplontersen, a ligand-conjugated antisense potential new medicine in Phase III clinical trials for amyloid transthyretin cardiomyopathy (ATTR-CM) and hereditary amyloid transthyretin polyneuropathy (hATTR-PN). AstraZeneca paid Ionis an upfront payment of $200 million and will pay additional conditional payments of up to $485 million following regulatory approvals. The company will also pay up to $2.9 billion of sales-related milestones based on sales thresholds between $500 million and $6 billion.
In January 2022, AstraZeneca entered into an exclusive global collaboration and license agreement with Neurimmune AG for NI006, an investigational human monoclonal antibody currently in Phase Ib development for the treatment of ATTR-CM. Under the agreement, Alexion will be granted an exclusive worldwide license to develop, manufacture and commercialize NI006. Alexion made an upfront payment of $30 million with the potential for additional contingent milestone payments of up to $730 million upon achievement of certain milestones.
Also in January 2022, AstraZeneca entered a licensing deal with Ovid Therapeutics for a library of early-stage small molecules targeting the KCC2 transporter, including lead candidate, OV350, an early-stage compound that has shown encouraging in-vitro and in-vivo proof of concept in resistant forms of epilepsy.
Under a multiyear global agreement, Thermo Fisher Scientific’s clinical sequencing business and AstraZeneca struck a deal to co-develop next-generation sequencing (NGS)-based companion diagnostics (CDx) to support AstraZeneca’s expanding portfolio of targeted therapies. NGS-based companion diagnostics are increasingly used to match patients with new therapies for cancer and other diseases. More than 90 percent of AstraZeneca’s clinical pipeline, across all main areas from oncology, cardiovascular and renal to metabolic and respiratory disease, are targeted precision medicine therapies.
Lastly, Aptamer Group, the developer of Optimer reagents and therapeutics, extended their agreement with AstraZeneca, building upon the existing collaboration to evaluate the potential of using Optimer-based strategies to target renal cells and explore the feasibility of developing next-generation drug delivery vehicles, Optimer-drug conjugates.
twitter.com/astrazeneca
www.astrazeneca.com
Headcount: 76,100
Year Established: 1999
Revenues: $37,417 (+41%)
Net Income: $115 (-96%)
R&D: $9,736 (+62%)
TOP SELLING DRUGS
| Drug | Indication | 2021 Sales | (+/-%) |
| Tagrisso | lung cancer | $5,015 | 16% |
| Vaxzevria | COVID-19 | $3,917 | n/a |
| Farxiga | Type 2 diabetes | $3,000 | 53% |
| Symbicort | Asthma | $2,728 | flat |
| Imfinzi | Bladder cancer | $2,412 | 18% |
| Lynparza | Fallopian tube cancer | $2,348 | 32% |
| Soliris | PNH / aHUS | $1,874 | 1% |
| Brilinta | antiplatelet | $1,472 | -8% |
| Nexium | Acid reflux | $1,326 | -11% |
| Fasenra | Asthma | $1,258 | 33% |
In 2021 AstraZeneca’s revenue increased 41% to $37.4 billion. Revenue for the year received a major boost from the $4 billion worth of sales generated by the company’s COVID-19 vaccine, Vaxzevria. Over half of sales ($2.2bn) came from emerging markets, excluding China.
In the fourth quarter of 2021, the company delivered approximately 102 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine through COVAX. By the end of 2021, the company and its partners had delivered more than 247 million doses with COVAX to 130 countries. As of February 2022, the number of vaccine doses released climbed to 2.6 billion in over 180 countries. Approximately two-thirds of the doses have gone to low- and middle-income countries.
Another highlight of AstraZeneca’s year was the completion of the $39 billion acquisition of Alexion, announced at the end of 2020. The deal to acquire Boston-based Alexion immediately made AstraZeneca a major player in rare diseases. The new rare diseases segment generated 8% of revenue at $3.1 billion. Key drugs gained in the purchase were Soliris and Ultomiris.
In May 2022, AstraZeneca unveiled plans to open a new site at the heart of the Cambridge, MA, life sciences and innovation hub, that will be a R&D center for AstraZeneca, as well as Alexion’s new corporate headquarters. The site, scheduled for completion in 2026, will have over 570,000 square feet of R&D and commercial space, and room for expansion, and will be in close proximity to several major academic, pharma and biotech institutions.
Oncology medicines, which represent AstraZeneca’s largest business segment, grew 19% year-over-year to $13.7 billion, driven by top seller, Tagrisso, which crossed the $5 billion revenue mark for the first time in 2021.
New R&D Discovery Center
In November 2021, AstraZeneca unveiled its new Discovery Center (DISC) in Cambridge, UK. The $1.2 billion state-of-the-art R&D facility includes advanced robotics, high-throughput screening and AI-driven technology. It will support AstraZeneca’s focus on specialized and precision medicines and foster the discovery and development of next generation therapeutics, including nucleotide-based, gene-editing and cell therapies. The new facility houses more than 2,200 scientists.The DISC will add to AstraZeneca’s R&D presence in more than 40 countries across the globe, including its other research centers in Sweden and the U.S., and development facilities in China and Japan. The company invests more than $7 billion in R&D globally each year, a large part of which takes place in the UK. The center will help further nurture partnerships, develop the next generation of science leaders and accelerate productivity.
Located within the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, the physical proximity of the building’s 19,000 square meter laboratories to leading hospitals, the University of Cambridge, other research institutions and a number of biotech companies will help promote a culture of open partnership and innovation. The company has over 200 active collaborations in the region and more than 2,000 around the world across academia, biotech and industry.
Strengthening the pipeline through partnerships
In September 2021, AstraZeneca entered an agreement to collaborate with VaxEquity for the discovery, development and commercialization of the self-amplifying RNA (saRNA) therapeutics platform developed at Imperial College London. The long-term research collaboration aims to optimize and validate VaxEquity’s saRNA platform and apply it to advance novel therapeutic programs. AstraZeneca will provide VaxEquity with R&D funding and development, approval and sales-based milestones totaling up to $195 million and royalties should AstraZeneca advance any of the research programs into its pipeline. AstraZeneca has the option to collaborate with VaxEquity on up to 26 drug targets and will also make an investment in VaxEquity to further the development of the saRNA platform.VaxEquity was founded by Imperial College London and Morningside in 2020 based on the innovative saRNA technology developed by Professor Robin Shattock and his colleagues at Imperial College London, UK. saRNA is a new platform for the development of medicines and vaccines which uses similar technology to mRNA but with the added ability to self-amplify, thereby expressing proteins for longer, resulting in higher protein levels per dose level. This has the potential to allow saRNAs to be delivered at lower concentrations than conventional mRNA therapeutics, leading to less frequent or lower dosing, and a broader range of potential applications.
In an acquisition deal, AstraZeneca paid $150 million for Caelum Biosciences, a biotech developing treatments for rare disease, in October 2021. The agreement also provides for additional potential payments to Caelum totaling up to $350 million, payable upon the achievement of regulatory and commercial milestones. At the time of the deal, Caelum had two ongoing Phase 3 clinical trials for CAEL-101, a potentially first-in-class fibril-reactive monoclonal antibody (mAb) for the treatment of light chain (AL) amyloidosis, a rare disease in which misfolded amyloid proteins build up in organs throughout the body, including the heart and kidneys, causing significant organ damage and failure that may ultimately be fatal. CAEL-101 is currently being evaluated in the Cardiac Amyloid Reaching for Extended Survival (CARES) Phase III clinical program in combination with standard-of-care (SoC) therapy in AL amyloidosis. Two parallel Phase III trials in patients with Mayo stage IIIa disease and in patients with Mayo stage IIIb disease respectively are ongoing.
In November 2021, AstraZeneca and Amgen agreed to include AZD8630 in the existing collaboration agreement between the parties. AZD8630 is a human anti-TSLP Fab17 for inhaled delivery and entered Phase I in Q1 2022. AstraZeneca will be the development/regulatory lead, manufacturing lead and commercial lead.
In December 2021, AstraZeneca entered into a new global development and commercialization agreement with Ionis Pharmaceuticals for eplontersen, a ligand-conjugated antisense potential new medicine in Phase III clinical trials for amyloid transthyretin cardiomyopathy (ATTR-CM) and hereditary amyloid transthyretin polyneuropathy (hATTR-PN). AstraZeneca paid Ionis an upfront payment of $200 million and will pay additional conditional payments of up to $485 million following regulatory approvals. The company will also pay up to $2.9 billion of sales-related milestones based on sales thresholds between $500 million and $6 billion.
In January 2022, AstraZeneca entered into an exclusive global collaboration and license agreement with Neurimmune AG for NI006, an investigational human monoclonal antibody currently in Phase Ib development for the treatment of ATTR-CM. Under the agreement, Alexion will be granted an exclusive worldwide license to develop, manufacture and commercialize NI006. Alexion made an upfront payment of $30 million with the potential for additional contingent milestone payments of up to $730 million upon achievement of certain milestones.
Also in January 2022, AstraZeneca entered a licensing deal with Ovid Therapeutics for a library of early-stage small molecules targeting the KCC2 transporter, including lead candidate, OV350, an early-stage compound that has shown encouraging in-vitro and in-vivo proof of concept in resistant forms of epilepsy.
Under a multiyear global agreement, Thermo Fisher Scientific’s clinical sequencing business and AstraZeneca struck a deal to co-develop next-generation sequencing (NGS)-based companion diagnostics (CDx) to support AstraZeneca’s expanding portfolio of targeted therapies. NGS-based companion diagnostics are increasingly used to match patients with new therapies for cancer and other diseases. More than 90 percent of AstraZeneca’s clinical pipeline, across all main areas from oncology, cardiovascular and renal to metabolic and respiratory disease, are targeted precision medicine therapies.
Lastly, Aptamer Group, the developer of Optimer reagents and therapeutics, extended their agreement with AstraZeneca, building upon the existing collaboration to evaluate the potential of using Optimer-based strategies to target renal cells and explore the feasibility of developing next-generation drug delivery vehicles, Optimer-drug conjugates.
