
AstraZeneca halting UK investment due to Brexit uncertainty
pharmafile | October 15, 2018 | News story | Manufacturing and Production | AstraZeneca, Le Monde, UK, brexit, no-deal
The Anglo-Swedish pharma firm AstraZeneca has suspended investment into the United Kingdom, due to the uncertainty surrounding Brexit.
The firm’s non-executive chairman, Leif Johansson, shed light on the company’s decision, in an interview with French newspaper Le Monde.
“If a transition deal does not make clear what will happen in the future, we will maintain our decision not to invest,” the Swedish businessman said to Le Monde.
He continued in saying that: “A Brexit agreement will need to ensure that Britain does not become an isolated island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.”
AstraZeneca have however already spent £40 million stockpiling medicines in preparation for disruption caused by a no-deal Brexit.
“In business, uncertainty often forces you to make decisions,” Johansson added. “But what is frustrating is to have to do so when the existing system works very well. This is costing us money and brings us no benefit.”
Louis Goss
Related Content

NICE recommends Benralizumab for Rare Form of Vasculitis
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has recommended AstraZeneca’s benralizumab (Fasenra) as …

NICE approves AstraZeneca’s dual immunotherapy for advanced liver cancer
AstraZeneca has received a positive recommendation from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence …

Addenbrooke’s hospital offers first self-service digital eye test
Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge, has become the first in the UK to deploy a digital self-testing …






