AstraZeneca board in line for GBP 60m windfall if Pfizer bid succeeds; Pfizer's top scientist to meet with Wellcome Trust
AstraZeneca’s senior executives would be in line for a GBP 60m (EUR 73m) windfall if a takeover bid from rival pharmaceuticals group Pfizer succeeds, The Times reported. The report said AstraZeneca chief executive Pascal Soriot and 12 other senior executives at the FTSE-100 pharmaceuticals company stand to gain if options and share incentives mature due to a takeover, but did not cite a source for the claim.
Soriot holds options and shares valued at GBP 31m, while his senior colleagues together hold more than 0.5m shares, the item noted.
Separately, the report noted that Soriot said a takeover by Pfizer is “not inevitable". The CEO said AstraZeneca, which is fighting a GBP 63bn takeover by its US rival, is confident about its strategy for independence. AstraZeneca’s defence against Pfizer turned to the geographic challenges the combined company would face, as executives fronted up to Parliament’s Science and Technology Committee yesterday morning, this news service reported on Wednesday.
The Daily Telegraph reported that Pfizer’s leading scientist Mikael Dolsten is visiting the UK to hold meetings with members of the country’s science community. It is understood that Dolsten held a meeting yesterday, 14 May with the chairman of the Wellcome Trust, William Castell, the item said. Dolsten also intends to hold a meeting with the president of the Royal Society, Paul Nurse, the article added, noting that both Nurse and Castell have voiced concerns about Pfizer’s bid for AstraZeneca.
In the meantime, AstraZeneca continued its recent campaign to update the market on the health of its drug pipeline. Below is an excerpt from a company announcement, the full version of which can be read here.
New data from AstraZeneca's investigational cancer medicines demonstrate the rapid progression of its oncology pipeline. Over 40 scientific abstracts from AstraZeneca and its global biologics R&D arm MedImmune will be featured at the 50th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) at the end of this month.
Briggs Morrison, Executive Vice President, Global Medicines Development and Chief Medical Officer at AstraZeneca said: "We believe that our rich oncology pipeline has the potential to redefine the way that cancer patients are treated. We continue to deliver on our late stage assets and drive our scientific leadership in oncology, as clearly demonstrated by the recent accelerated development of key assets.
"The preliminary data made available today highlight our strength across our three core areas of oncology research: immuno-oncology, our focus on the genetic drivers of cancer and acquired resistance and DNA damage repair. We are looking forward to the presentation of the full data sets at ASCO."
Source The Times (London), Daily Telegraph, Company website