The company’s chief executive David Brennan said that the company plans to strengthen its pipeline, weakened by a string of product failures, through improving the productivity of its in-house drug discovery and development whilst continuing to acquire promising technologies from other companies.
Mr Brennan also referred to the recent GBP702 million bid for the biotechnology company Cambridge Antibody Technology, and suggested that there may be more deals of a similar nature to follow with the company keen to build “a major international presence in the research and development of biological therapeutics to complement our small molecule capabilities.”
The company believes that effective life-cycle management of the antipsychotic Seroquel, the statin Crestor, and the asthma drug Symbicort would continue to drive top line growth.