AstraZeneca

AstraZeneca plc () (AZ) is a Swedish–British multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company with its headquarters at the Cambridge Biomedical Campus in Cambridge, UK. It has a portfolio of products for major diseases in areas including oncology, cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, infection, neuroscience, respiratory, and inflammation. The company was founded in 1999 through the merger of the Swedish Astra AB and the British Zeneca Group (itself formed by the demerger of the pharmaceutical operations of Imperial Chemical Industries in 1993). Zeneca shareholders received 53.5% of the shares, while Astra shareholders received the remaining 46.5%. Its portfolio includes primary and speciality care, coverage for rare diseases, and a robust global presence across various regions. Since the merger it has been among the world's largest pharmaceutical companies and has made numerous corporate acquisitions, including Cambridge Antibody Technology (in 2006), MedImmune (in 2007), Spirogen (in 2013) and Definiens (by MedImmune in 2014). It has its research and development concentrated in three strategic centres: Cambridge, UK; Gothenburg, Sweden; and Gaithersburg, Maryland, US. AstraZeneca traces its earliest corporate history to 1913, when Astra AB was formed by a large group of doctors and apothecaries in Södertälje. Throughout the twentieth century, it grew into the largest pharmaceutical company in Sweden. Its British counterpart, Zeneca PLC was formed in 1993 when ICI divested its pharmaceuticals businesses; Astra AB and Zeneca PLC merged six years later, with the chosen headquarters in the United Kingdom. AstraZeneca's primary listing is on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index; it also secondary listings on Nasdaq Stockholm and the New York Stock Exchange. AstraZeneca has one of the highest market capitalisations of pharmaceutical companies worldwide.