Written by: Francesca Gennari – 30 May 2014 – Europae European affairs magazine
Astrazeneca was born on 6 April 1999 from the merger between the Swedish company Astra AB and the British group Zeneca plc. At the time, this merger was very favorably received internationally, as both original companies shared the same business ambitions, coupled with a keen interest in high-level scientific research.
Astra AB it had been founded in 1913 by a group of four hundred people including doctors and pharmacists. Thanks to the guidance of the "leading family", the Johannsons, and of the historical managing director, Borje Gabrielson, Astra has become the first Swedish producer of pharmaceutical products, in particular penicillin and anesthetics. Zeneca plc instead it was the result of a split, dating back to 1993, of the pharmaceutical and agrochemical branches of the Imperial Chemical Industries.
Astrazeneca is today the seventh largest multinational pharmaceutical company in the world, a leader in drugs for cardiovascular disorders, gastrointestinal infections, and neuroscience and cancer research, with laboratories in Cambridge and Sweden.
Why then from weeks on The Guardian, the Financial Times and it Svenska Dagbladet there is an entire section dedicated to updates on the events of qu
