That an agreement on the Brexit to be signed in the next few days or not, AstraZeneca has not been able to wait. While it remains less than six months before the effective date of the release of the european Union (EU), march 29, 2019, the pharmaceutical laboratory of the uk, one of the largest in the world, has had to take precautions.
It has increased its stocks of drugs at the border and it duplicates in Sweden some scientific equipment that he already had in the United Kingdom. “We have also stopped investing in the Uk “, explains to the World Leif Johansson, the chairman of the board of directors of AstraZeneca. Cost of these preparations : 40 million pounds (45 million euros).
More than this amount, which is absorbable for this company with a turnover of 22 billion dollars (19 billion euros), the Brexit has mostly been a huge waste of energy. “I spend between a fifth and a quarter of my time, is a testament to Mr. Johansson. It is a subject eminently strategic. It is very rare that we have a meeting of the board of directors, which does not mention it. “
The Brexit has a crippling effect. The fog that surrounds, for the past two and a half years, the process, blocking major decisions. It also forces us to take emergency measures to be prepared for all eventualities. AstraZeneca, a group of pan-european, born in 1999 from the merger of Swedish Astra and british Zeneca, a good illustration of this.
“It is necessary that patients have access to medicines ”
“In business, one is often forced to act in conditions of uncertainty, this sort of thing happens, puts into perspective the Swedish. But what is frustrating is to make it so that what currently exists works very well. It’s costing us money and it does not bring us anything advantageous. “
“I’m not telling you that everything is going to collapse. But it withdraws from something that worked…