AstraZeneca was formed on 6 April 1999 through the merger of Astra AB of Sweden and Zeneca Group PLC of the UK – two companies with similar science-based cultures and a shared vision of the pharmaceutical industry.

The merger aimed to improve the combined companies’ ability to deliver long term growth and enduring shareholder value through:

• Ability to deliver the potential of existing and future products through the power and reach of a combined global sales and marketing resource
• Widespread class coverage in key therapy areas, such as cardiovascular and respiratory disease, due to complementary nature of products
• Major primary care presence, particularly in gastrointestinal, cardiovascular and respiratory medicine
• Leading position in a number of specialist/hospital markets, including oncology and anaesthesia

• Substantial research and development (R&D) expenditure
• Strong combined development pipeline
• Potential for further strengthening of the pipeline by enhanced discovery and development capability through greater scale and focus on selected areas and technologies

• Financial strength and scale to give AstraZeneca's management greater strategic flexibility to drive long-term earnings growth
• Substantial operational efficiencies resulting in cost savings