The chief executive of AstraZeneca has urged the government to improve patient access to new medicines or risk further undermining the confidence of multinationals about investing in Britain.
As the London stock market’s biggest company unveiled strong first half-year results and an upgrade to its full-year forecasts, Sir Pascal Soriot said he hoped that the “new government will take a new look at the way medicines are being assessed”.
Soriot, 65, warned that “developing medicines in a country doesn’t really make a lot of sense or is not very attractive if you know patients will not benefit. And that’s really the aspect of the environment that needs to change in the UK.”
His comments echo a recent warning from Paul Hudson, the British group