AstraZeneca Needs New Strategy After Boardroom Shake up - EP Vantage Investigates

London (ots/PRNewswire) -

As AstraZeneca PLC Chief Executive David Brennan steps down,
EvaluatePharma Ltd.'s EP Vantage award-winning team of journalists
investigates the challenges and strategic options facing by the
company.

Whoever becomes the new chief executive of AstraZeneca faces a
difficult task - choosing a path to pursue to resuscitate the ailing
Anglo-Swedish drug maker's growth prospects. Options include a
transformative acquisition, an outright sale of the company, or
continuation of its current strategy of investing in R&D and smaller
bolt-ons and hoping for a better success rate. None of them will
provide an easy fix.

It has become crystal clear that AZ needs a new strategic
direction, or the very least invigoration. Too many of its big hopes
have been dry holes. With a market cap of $55.76bn, investors now
value the company at less than the net present value of its marketed
products, worth $75.6bn according to EvaluatePharma's NPV Analyzer.
That figure implies little confidence in the group delivering on
existing products, let alone its pipeline (Pipeline setbacks hurt
AstraZeneca, December 20, 2011).

It would perhaps be an exaggeration to call AZ a shadow of its
former self in 2018, but based on current forecasts the company's
prescription sales are projected to shrink at an annual rate above 5%
a year through 2018, $10bn being erased through patent expiries (see
below, and Novartis on track to become world's biggest drug maker,
April 25, 2012 - http://bit.ly/IjPkWa).

These are signs of a company in need of a fix and in agitating for
change at the top investors hope to find it.

World's Top 15 Pharma Companies
                            Market Rank        Rx Pharma Sales ($bn)
                                                                     
Annual
                                                                     
growth
                       2011 2014 2016 2018     2011   2014  2016  
2018  2011-18
        Novartis         2    1    1    1      46.7   47.6  49.0  
50.8    1.2%
        Sanofi           4    3    3    2      39.3   42.9  45.6  
47.8    2.9%
        Pfizer           1    2    2    3      53.5   46.9  46.5  
47.1   -1.8%
        GlaxoSmithKline  6    6    4    4      35.0   38.5  43.1  
45.6    3.9%
        Roche            5    5    5    5      37.0   40.7  42.7  
45.0    2.8%
        Merck & Co       3    4    6    6      41.9   40.9  42.6  
41.0   -0.3%
        Johnson &
        Johnson          9    8    7    7      22.3   25.8  27.2  
27.3    2.9%
        Teva            11   10   10    8      17.1   22.1  22.8  
23.3    4.5%
        AstraZeneca      7    7    8    9      32.4   26.7  25.2  
22.1   -5.3%
        Abbott
        Laboratories     8    9    9   10      22.4   23.7  23.9  
22.1   -0.2%
        Bristol-Myers
        Squibb          12   15   11   11      16.9   14.9  18.9  
21.4    3.4%
        Novo Nordisk    17   14   13   12      12.4   15.6  18.0  
19.9    7.0%
        Takeda          14   12   12   13      15.2   16.8  18.7  
19.5    3.6%
        Bayer           16   16   16   14      13.6   14.6  15.7  
16.5    2.7%
        Gilead Sciences 21   20   17   15       8.1   10.8  15.0  
15.7    9.9%

About EP Vantage

Written by a team of experienced journalists, EP Vantage provides
timely financial analysis of regulatory and patent decisions,
marketing approvals, licensing deals, and M&A, giving fresh angles
and insight to both current and future industry triggers.

EP Vantage is recognised by its peers and by the industry for
perceptive and penetrating coverage of the sector. The team received
the Commentator of the Year prize at the 2011 European Mediscience
Awards in London.

http://www.epvantage.com

About EvaluatePharma Ltd.

The market intelligence and analysis company EvaluatePharma Ltd
was the first to supply reliable consensus forecasts of global drug
sales and has just updated the standardized worldwide financial and
forecast models with consensus product sales forecasts to 2018.
EvaluatePharma also provides data on R&D pipelines, clinical trials,
licensing deals, patent risk, M&A activity, valuation through product
Net Present Value analysis plus daily commentary and analysis from
the EP Vantage(R) news service.

EvaluatePharma Ltd, headquartered in London, England and in North
America is represented by EvaluatePharma USA, Inc.

http://www.evaluatepharma.com

Media Contacts: Andrew Beaven Marketing
Director, EvaluatePharma Ltd Tel: +44(0)20-7539-1818
Email: [email protected] EvaluatePharma Ltd
11-29 Fashion Street London E1 6PX United
Kingdom Christine Lindgren Tel: +1-617-573-9458
Email: [email protected] EvaluatePharma USA
15 Broad St. Boston, MA 02109

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