One of the biggest shareholders in AstraZeneca, the pharmaceutical group, has questioned the long-term viability of the Big Pharma business model by asking whether it could discourage the development of new medicines.
Borje Eckholm, president and chief executive of Investor AB, the Swedish investment group linked to the Wallenberg family that holds a 3.5 per cent stake in AstraZeneca worth more than $2 billion (£1 billion), said a “fundamental question” existed over whether huge, vertically integrated pharmaceutical companies make the most effective use of their research funding.
“You have to ask yourself: do you have economies of scale in R&D? It's not clear but one of the fundamental ways that companies create value for shareholders is strong R&D. It raises the question: is big better? Maybe you have to split it up into smaller parts.”
More at The Times
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