Pascal Soriot, chief executive of AstraZeneca, leaves right after appearing at a parliamentary company and enterprise committee hearing in London. Photograph: Neil Hall/Reuters
The boss of AstraZeneca raised the stakes in excess of the controversial takeover threat by US rival drugmaker Pfizer by warning on Tuesday that an aggressive cost-cutting plan by the American firm could cost the lives of cancer patients.
Pascal Soriot, AstraZeneca’s chief executive, advised MPs that the development of existence-conserving cancer drugs could be significantly delayed by the mixed organizations “conserving tax and conserving fees”.
Soriot, who is desperately fighting Pfizer’s plans to gobble up his company in the most significant ever foreign takeover of a British company, said the planned £63bn deal could severely jeopardise the improvement of some of the world’s most promising drugs.
“Any distractions on function we are performing now could run the danger of delaying our medicines pipeline,” he said. “From the lab to the patient requires a lot of many years.”
In an emotive appearance at the company choose committee, Soriot explained: “What will we inform the particular person whose father died from lung cancer simply because a single of our medicines was delayed – and basically was delayed because in the meantime our two organizations have been involved in saving tax and conserving charges?
“It is logical to assume that a merger like this could imply substantial value financial savings, and expense financial savings could imply job losses.”
Soriot is concerned that Pfizer’s proposed takeover – which the US organization admitted on Tuesday would consequence in work cuts and a huge reduction in investigation and advancement investing – could distract AstraZeneca’s scientists as they method a vital level in the improvement of several possibly existence-saving medication.
Inside of the past week, AstraZeneca has released a string of constructive test results and pushed 3 medication by means of to late stage trials, such as a lung cancer medicine quick-tracked to final stage trials.
AstraZeneca began phase III massive-scale hospital trials of the cancer immunotherapy drug codenamed MEDI4736 final weekearlier productive trials at American Society of Clinical Oncology conference in Chicago later on this month.
The drug, which utilizes the body’s personal defences to spot and destroy cancer cells rather than attacking them with chemotherapy, is regarded as possibly a single of the most groundbreaking of recent years. It could also be a big money-spinner, with AstraZeneca believes revenue could peak at £3.9bn a year.
Pfizer declined to comment on the suggestion that its proposed takeover could cost lives, but its chief executive, Ian Read through, told MPs that his motivation for buying AstraZeneca was to speed up the introduction of new medicines, not slow it down.
“We have an expression at Pfizer, ‘Patients are waiting’, and the more quickly we can get medication to patients the a lot more productive we can be and the far more profitable the market will be,” he said.
US takeover could value lives, claims AstraZeneca boss
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