UPDATE: MedImmune's biologics capabilities to boost AstraZeneca's flagging pipeline

David Brennan, Anglo-Swedish drug major AstraZeneca's chief executive, says that building a substantial international presence in research, development and commercialization is key to sustained success. The comment, made during the firm's R&D presentation at the headquarters of its newly-acquired US biologics division MedImmune in Gaithersburg, Maryland, set the tone for a discussion of the firm's efforts to bolster its drug pipeline and extend its reach into new geographies.

Echoing these thoughts was David Mott, MedImmune's chief executive, who was appointed following the firm's integration with former UK-based Cambridge Antibody Technology earlier this year (Marketletter November 5). Mr Mott said that the inclusion of two of AstraZeneca's pre-existing biologics locations and 300 staff under the MedImmune umbrella has more than doubled the firm's biologics pipeline to over a dozen clinical product candidates and over 100 research projects. He went on to say that, as a result, "we have also increased our productivity targets, including having at least three new drug candidates in pivotal trials by 2010 and, at steady state, targeting an average of six investigational new drug applications for submission per year."