AstraZeneca: Strategic Analysis
Introduction:

This report is aimed at presenting the strategic analysis of one of the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies, AstraZeneca, which is dedicated to the discovery, development, manufacturing and marketing of high quality, effective prescription medicines that bring benefit for patients and add value for shareholders and wider society. The specific objectives of the report include external and internal environment analysis of AstraZeneca; and generalized options development considering suitability, acceptability and feasibility.

Framework for Analysis:

This report uses a framework for prescriptive strategy given by Lynch (2003) in order to structure the work. Therefore main subsections in this report are analysis of environment (1), analysis of resources (2) and strategic options development (3, 4 & 5). The framework by Lynch (2003) is drawn as follows:
Analysis of the Environment
Vision, Mission & Objectives
Analysis of the Resources
Options Development
Rational Selection
Finding the Strategic Route
Organizational Structure and Style
Imple-mentation
4
3
2
5
6
8
7
1
Long Term Monitoring
Long Term Monitoring
Discovery
Choice
Action
Strategic Management Process adopted from Lynch (2003)

Company Background:

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 (AstraZeneca, 2005). AstraZeneca is a pharmaceutical company that invests, develops and commercializes drugs. The products of the company are concentrate in the field of gastrointestinal, cardiovascular, cancer, respiratory, central nervous system, pain control and infection (Euromonitor, 2004). According to Datamonitor (2005), within this therapeutic structure, the company builds up teams with scientific, medical, regulatory and customer expertise.

The company