AstraZeneca Plc’s Chief Executive Officer Pascal Soriot wants to move the drugmaker’s stock listing to the US, the Times reported, in what would be another sign of the UK’s waning status as a magnet for global capital.
The pharma chief is frustrated at the UK’s regulatory regime for drugs and concerned that the country’s life sciences industry is falling behind the US and China, the newspaper said, citing people familiar with the situation. Soriot has also discussed moving AstraZeneca’s domicile, the Times said.
“We do not comment on speculation,” AstraZeneca spokesman Tony Ho Wan Loke said by email. AstraZeneca shares closed 2.8% higher in London after the report, almost erasing their year-to-date decline.
The drugmaker is Britain’s largest publicly traded company with a market value of about £160 billion ($220 billion), and losing it would be a major setback for the London Stock Exchange that would require a significant index re-weighting.
Companies with a combined value of more than $100 billion have announced or executed plans to move to New York in recent years, according to Bloomberg calculations, often in search of improved liquidity. The latest is international payments firm Wise Plc, which has said it will consult shareholders on a move.
“It would be the biggest blow to the UK market,” said Ketan Patel, a fund manager at the family office Whitefriars which owns AstraZeneca shares.
It would also be a major setback to UK’s attempt to build up its life sciences industry. AstraZeneca is seen as a homegrown success story, a perception amplified during the pandemic when the company co-developed a Covid-19 vaccine with Oxford University, with funding from the government.
British Background
Soriot himself has talked up the company’s British heritage since taking the helm in 2012, especially as he fended off a takeover attempt by Pfizer Inc. a couple of years later. He’s considered one of the most formidable CEOs in the industry, having inherited a steep patent cliff with a range of Astra’s best-selling drugs, such as its cholesterol treatments, losing protection.
He revived Astra’s fortunes by transforming its drug pipeline and refocusing on the lucrative area of oncology treatments.
“The company under Pascal Soriot has moved from an acquisition target by Pfizer to the largest company in the FTSE 100,” Patel said.
Yet Soriot’s recent public statements on the UK have illustrated a growing tension, and the CEO has repeatedly warned about the country’s ability to attract investment due to its high taxes and regulatory burden.
Read More: Astra, J&J and Others Say UK ‘Uninvestable’ Amid Drug Rebate Row
In January, AstraZeneca abandoned plans to invest £450 million in a UK vaccine manufacturing plant, following protracted wrangling with the Labour administration over the level of state funding. The company has also clashed with Britain’s drug pricing regulator over the approval of new medicines.
AstraZeneca generated about 43% of its sales last year in the US, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, and the argument in favor of a move is bolstered by concerns over US President Donald Trump’s plan to impose tariffs on pharmaceutical imports that has weighed on drugmakers’ shares.
Soriot has also complained he is underpaid relative to US pharma CEOs.
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