With its latest $50 billion U.S. manufacturing investment and record U.S. growth, is British AstraZeneca looking at itself as an American company?
The answer is no, CEO Pascal Soriot sought to clarify on a media call for the company’s second-quarter earnings drop. With a presence in “every country around the world,” AstraZeneca is a global company and remains “committed to the U.K.,” Soriot affirmed.
However, a U.S.-focused mindset is not out of the question.
"We want to behave in the U.S. as a U.S. company,” the CEO said.
The company previously set a goal of achieving $80 billion in sales by the end of the decade, with 50% of that haul, or around $40 billion, slated to come from U.S. sales.
U.S. sales made up 44% of the company’s total revenues of $13.8 billion over the second quarter. Plus, thanks to its U.S. manufacturing footprint set to be even bigger with a $50 billion investment in the country by 2030, including with a massive manufacturing site in Virginia, AZ is preparing for increased demand for its medicines.
With its large U.S. manufacturing network, the company is “almost self-sufficient” in the U.S., Soriot explained. For its few products that aren’t made in the U.S., AZ is rapidly transferring its supply to the U.S. That helps add security around tariffs, a threat that has now become all the more real for European pharmas thanks to a new EU-U.S. trade deal.
Other than tariffs, another drug pricing shake-up on the horizon is President Donald Trump’s most favored nation order that seeks to link U.S. drug prices to those in other developed countries.
AZ has had “many discussions” with the Trump administration on price qualms and has made “proposals that would lead to price reductions of our products,” Soriot revealed. The CEO overall sides with the ideals of the pricing policy.
“I do believe a rebalancing of pricing around the world is necessary,” the CEO said. “The U.S. can no longer pay for the R&D of the world.”
A direct-to-patient model is one approach that other drugmakers have adopted in response to U.S. pricing woes. AZ, too is “absolutely considering this,” Soriot said, but added that it “cannot apply to everything.” The CEO pointed to cancer drugs or rare disease meds that are “never going to sell” online. But some drugs, such as weight loss meds, primary care drugs, asthma-related products and the like could align with a telehealth model, he argued.
“We are looking at it, and we have a few medicines that we will supply directly,” he said on the media call.
Soriot offered support for “some reduction of pricing levels in the U.S.” and “some increase,” although not “massive increases,” in Europe, Soriot said on the press call.
Europe is “falling behind” in terms of innovation, and access to necessary medicines in the region is “very, very slow and very difficult,” the CEO said.
While the company plans to continue its U.K. investments, Soriot made a point to encourage Europe to dedicate “a greater share of their GDP to pharmaceutical innovation” and further “improve the environment.” Doing so could foster more investments that would boost the economy and bring “even more chances to cure cancer,” he added.
“We have tremendous talented people in the U.K. We just need to see that there is access and a reason to invest so that our medicines can benefit patients,” Soriot noted.
The longtime CEO has been openly critical of U.K. drug regulators before, such as when its Daiichi Sankyo-partnered Enhertu was rejected in one indication by England’s pricing officials.
Soriot is reportedly even weighing a shift of the company’s primary stock listing from London to the U.S., The Times reported in early July. The CEO declined to comment on the rumors on the second-quarter earnings calls.