Just days after President Donald Trump was elected in November, AstraZeneca unveiled a plan to invest an additional $2 billion, more than doubling its outlay to grow its manufacturing and R&D presence in the United States through 2026.
Eight months later, AZ CEO Pascal Soriot is reportedly plotting a shift of the company’s primary stock listing from London to the U.S., according to The Times. The British news outlet cites multiple unnamed sources, including one who added that Soriot has even discussed basing AZ’s business in the U.S.
The 66-year-old Soriot, who has headed up AZ for 13 years and is one of the most powerful voices in the industry, has often jousted with the U.K. government, frustrated with how its drug regulators handled approvals and pricing.
Less than a year ago, Soriot was critical of England’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), when it rejected AZ’s Daiichi Sankyo-partnered cancer blockbuster Enhertu, denying access to the drug in HER2-low breast cancer.
Losing AZ would be a major blow to the London Stock Exchange. With a market cap of $219 billion, the drugmaker is the second-largest company in the U.K., ranking just behind chemical giant Linde and ahead of firms such as HSBC, Shell, Unilever and Rolls-Royce.
The rumors come as the threat of Trump-led tariffs looms over the pharmaceutical industry. Three months ago, CEOs from 32 drugmakers signed off on a letter to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen demanding more favorable drug policies and threatening an investment exodus to the U.S.
The European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA) warned von der Leyen that unless Europe delivers “rapid, radical policy change,” pharmaceutical R&D and manufacturing is “increasingly likely to be directed towards the U.S. The EPPIA estimated that more than $100 billion in investment could leave the EU.
Like many of its Big Pharma peers, AZ already has strong financial ties to the U.S. Of its $50.9 billion product sales in 2024, $21.7 billion came in the U.S., compared to $10.8 billion in Europe.