Astra Zeneca
Can you give me some information about product development?
New product development in the pharmaceutical industry is notoriously slow and costly. The industry estimates that only one out of every five thousand new chemical compounds made in the laboratory ends up on the market. It takes an average of ten to twelve years for a new medicine to get from the lab to the chemist shop. The estimated cost of new product development in this industry is between $500 and $600 million.
AstraZeneca spends some £5 million each day on global research and development.
AstraZeneca's new product pipeline includes the following: a new treatment for asthma; a therapy for cutting cholesterol; an anti-blood clotting agent; and new treatments for a range of cancers and arthritis.
In its research and development division, the company has 10,000 people working on new medicines. There are six main R & D sites - two in the UK, three in Sweden (headquarters of the company's R & D activities) and one in the USA, and some smaller sites.