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AstraZeneca’s Seasoned Dealmaker Grady On Strategy To Grow Pipeline

 
• By Sten Stovall

AstraZeneca’s Shaun Grady is an affable dealmaker whose talents – honed over three decades inside the group – are being put to the test as global business development head to help ensure Britain’s second-biggest drugmaker can successfully transform itself, its therapy focus and pipeline. He tells In Vivo about his role leading AZ’s transaction execution, due diligence and alliance and integration management, while overseeing its collaborative “externalization” program, licensing and partnering, M&A and divestments.

Head of business development at AstraZeneca, Shaun Grady
AstraZeneca's Shaun Grady

Business development activity lies at the heart of AstraZeneca PLC’s hopes to return to growth in 2017 after the loss this year of patent protection for its mega-blockbuster statin Crestor (rosuvastatin) in the US – a challenge that follows the patent expiry in 2015 of proton-pump inhibitor Nexium (esomeprazole) while the loss of patent protection still awaits antipsychotic Seroquel XR (quetiapine extended release) in 2017. Still, management is confident it can navigate those threats while also increasing the focus on future growth drivers that the company says will produce an eventual turnaround.

Oncology is one area where the company has made significant progress, although it still has a way to go before it catches up to leaders in the space like Roche, Novartis AG and Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. Half of the firm’s R&D investments are now in cancer products. The next 12 months will be pivotal, with heavy news flow coming for its young pipeline. Although late to the game, AstraZeneca aims to become a big player in cancer treatment by developing novel therapies that bolster the immune system and others that disrupt DNA repair mechanisms used by tumors cells

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