Astra Values Entrepreneurial Spirit, Keeps R&D “Armies” Away From CAT

AstraZeneca seeks to preserve the entrepreneurial spirit of its acquisitions by giving them the opportunity to operate differently. "Our strategy is ... to bring them into the AstraZeneca family, but make sure they've got the opportunity to operate differently," CEO David Brennan said during AstraZeneca's fourth quarter earnings call Feb. 1.

Brennan said that AstraZeneca desires to have relationships similar to the one it has established with Cambridge Antibody Technology, which it acquired in May 2006 "We want to have relationships like that continue the way they have been, and the reason that they've been successful is because of the way they've been operating," Brennan said.

AstraZeneca's strategy falls in line with recent moves by companies such as Pfizer and Novartis to give acquired firms more operational independence (¹ (Also see "Big Pharma More Comfortable Giving Acquired Firms Independence" - Pink Sheet, 21 Aug, 2006.), p. 12).

Development Director John Patterson noted that while he does not have a "culture-ometer" to measure the climate at CAT, AstraZeneca has taken a number of steps to maintain its independence. "Everything from retaining the name to stopping the armies of AstraZeneca people marching down the A1 into Cambridge to try to make sure they seem to be having that independence."

Patterson said AstraZeneca also permits CAT to work on compounds in its own therapeutic areas of interest. "We set it up in such a way that whilst they're going to produce streams of work in relation to our therapeutic areas, we've also set up another stream that says, 'You do what you think is best to actually deliver some novel medicines outside that, whether that's from technologies or from novel targets,'" Patterson said.

In addition, both companies decide on AstraZeneca's therapeutic areas of concentration, Patterson said. "The way we agree on the targets for instance is not [that] the man from AstraZeneca goes down the road to Cambridge and says, 'Deliver three monoclonals against those targets.' It's actually about putting the scientists in a room together and saying, 'You've got to agree, and nobody has the casting vote.'"

Compounds developed by CAT are put into the broader AstraZeneca pipeline around the middle or end of Phase II, Patterson said. AstraZeneca has stepped up its licensing efforts in the past year as it seeks to expand its sagging pipeline (² (Also see "AstraZeneca Cuts 3,000 Manufacturing Jobs, Pares Down Therapeutic Areas" - Pink Sheet, 5 Feb, 2007.), p. 15).