1st Jul 2025 17:43
(Alliance News) - The long-serving chief executive of AstraZeneca, Britain's most valuable public company, would like to move the stock market listing to the US, the Times reported on Tuesday.
Shares in the Cambridge-based pharmaceuticals company closed up 2.1% at 10,328.32 pence each in London on Tuesday for a market value of GBP160 billion.
Citing multiple sources, the Times said AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot has spoken privately of his preference to move the FTSE 100 company's listing on a number of occasions and has even discussed moving AstraZeneca's domicile.
The Times said Soriot is likely to face resistance from parts of the board should he push for such a move, as well as the British government. The government is not believed to have been informed.
Soriot, who has led AstraZeneca since 2012, has spoken publicly of his concerns at how Europe has fallen behind the US and China, the company's two largest markets, in innovating new medicines.
He is known to be deeply frustrated with the UK’s operating environment, the Times report said, particularly the restrictions on the approval of new medicines by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, such as the breast cancer drug Enhertu, and the pricing of medicines under an NHS sales rebate scheme.
A spokesman for AstraZeneca declined to comment.
Any attempt to move the listing would be highly controversial and a significant blow to the London stock market and Britain's life sciences, one of eight sectors prioritised by the Labour government in its industrial strategy.
By Jeremy Cutler, Alliance News reporter
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