The boss of drugmaker AstraZeneca said Britain is a better place to do business than it was a year ago, but warned more improvements are needed.
In what could be seen as a warning to the main parties ahead of the general election, French chief executive Pascal Soriot said there was work to do to boost investment in innovation.
But he was more positive about the UK than last year when he called it a “very unattractive” place to do business.
In April he criticized high taxes in Britain, saying it was a difficult country to set up pharmaceutical manufacturing bases, while touting China as the next big growth region.
But yesterday he said: “We are certainly looking at what future investments we could make in the UK and elsewhere.”
Optimistic: Astrazeneca’s French chief executive Pascal Soriot (pictured) is more positive about the UK than last year when he called it a “very unattractive” place to do business.
The FTSE 100 boss said it was now easier to run clinical trials and praised the Chancellor for introducing tax policies to “incentivize businesses to invest”.
“The current environment in the UK for life sciences is different to almost a year ago,” said Soriot, appointed in 2012. The ability to conduct clinical trials has greatly improved.
‘The Government and the NHS have done a lot to facilitate clinical trials. The chancellor has introduced tax policies that help encourage businesses to invest.
‘Finally, the industry and the Government have found a compromise in terms of those reductions that really affected companies and reduced incentives to invest.
There is more to do to increase investment in innovation in the UK, but we are clearly moving in the right direction and in a much better environment. There is more to come.’
It came as the Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical giant more than doubled its annual profits last year thanks to bumper sales of cancer treatments.
Profits reached £5.5bn in 2023, up from £1.9bn the previous year, while sales rose 3 per cent to £36.3bn. Excluding Covid drugs, sales increased by 13 percent.
Sales of cancer drugs rose 19 per cent to £14.6 billion and account for 40 per cent of revenue compared to 35 per cent in 2022.
And the London-listed firm said this year’s revenue and profits would be boosted by blockbuster oncology drugs.
Revenue and core earnings per share (a measure of profits) are expected to increase by a “low double-digit to low-teens percentage” in 2024.
But shares fell 6.4 per cent, or 667 pence, to 9,823 pence, as results for the final three months of the year were not as strong as expected.
It reported profits of £712m between October and December, up 15 per cent on a year earlier but less than analysts had expected; The failure was due to an increase in spending on research and development and price reductions for some drugs in emerging markets.
“Pharmaceutical companies typically thrive by having a combination of blockbuster products, treatments with limited or no competition, and a good pipeline of new drugs,” said Russ Mold, chief investment officer at AJ Bell.
‘Astra is under constant pressure to continue driving growth. That means success both in the laboratory and in products on the market. Your pipeline seems very busy, but success is never guaranteed.’