Matej Mikulic
Research expert covering health, pharma & medtech
In 2023, British-Swedisch biopharmaceutical company AstraZeneca generated revenues of some 44 billion U.S. dollars, the sixth consecutive year with significant growth. The largest therapeutic area is oncology, responsible for more than a third of the company’s total revenue. Accordingly, on of AstraZeneca’s best-selling products is Tagrisso, a lung cancer treatment. Tagrisso generated a total revenue of 5.8 billion U.S. dollars in 2023. Other top products are Farxiga, Imfinzi, Soliris, and Symbicort. Interestingly, although in global focus during 2020-2021 due to its COVID-19 vaccine, AstraZeneca was previously not among the leading vaccine manufacturers. In fact, only with the pandemic has the company initiated a deeper involvement in the area of vaccines and immune therapies.
High R&D intensity as a company trait
Within big pharma, AstraZeneca is among the companies with the largest investment in research and development in relation to revenues. AstraZeneca spends well above 20 percent – in some years even nearly 30 percent – of its revenues on R&D projects. In 2023, the company’s R&D expenditures stood at roughly 11 billion euros. As a consequence, AstraZeneca is among the companies with the highest number of originated drugs and also has one of the largest R&D pipelines worldwide.The COVID-19 vaccine
In 2020, AstraZeneca became well-known due to its highly promising COVID-19 vaccine. Codenamed AZD1222, the vaccine was the most pre-ordered COVID-19 vaccine worldwide, by far. The vaccine was originally developed at the University of Oxford’s Jenner Institute. In April 2020, the two parties announced a partnership that saw AstraZeneca take responsibility for the trials, production, marketing, and logistics. The company declared that the vaccine would be sold at cost price. Additionally, the vaccine does not require ultra-cold storage, which was different from some of the other vaccines available. Therefore, AZD1222 was especially attractive for countries without an existing ultra-cold supply chain, as well as for developing countries.
