Swedish research bodies ‘worried’ over Pfizer bid for AstraZeneca
The two leading research bodies in Sweden have spoken out against Pfizer’s $110bn bid for AstraZeneca, criticising mergers in the pharmaceutical sector and the US company’s previous form. The head of the Karolinska Institutet, a Stockholm university that accounts for almost half of the medical research in Sweden, and the chairman of the body behind the Nobel Prizes told the Financial Times of their concerns, in their first public comments on a takeover offer for the Anglo-Swedish company that has raised heckles on both sides of the Atlantic.
“I worry [about the bid]. I think it may have negative consequences for Sweden in the long run. There is always the worry that if the company decides to make reductions that they will happen here rather than elsewhere,” said Carl-Henrik Heldin, chairman of the Nobel Foundation and a cancer researcher himself. Anders Hamsten, vice-chancellor of Karolinska Institutet, said: “We are worried and concerned that this would limit the future activities of a new company both in the greater Stockholm area but also in the whole of Sweden.” Pfizer’s bid provoked vocal opposition quickly in the UK including from the Wellcome Trust, Britain’s biggest medical research foundation, but criticism is starting to be raised in AstraZeneca’s other home country of Sweden. Anders Borg, Sweden’s finance minister, said last week that Pfizer’s record in the country made him sceptical about its plans for AstraZeneca’s research operations. One of the Anglo-Swedish drugmaker’s three big research centres is based in Mölndal outside Gothenburg. Mr Hamsten said: “In a way we have a somewhat dismal history in relation to Pfizer. Pfizer took over Pharmacia [in 2003] and at that point of time fairly strong commitments were made to invest and do research in Sweden, and that really didn’t turn out to be the case.” Mr Heldin said foreign takeovers of both Astra and Pharmacia, which was first bought in 1995 by Upjohn of the US, had been “very bad” for Sweden. In depth
Pfizer’s AstraZeneca bid
Pfizer’s £63bn offer for AstraZeneca, if successful, would create the world’s biggest pharmaceuticals group and represent the largest foreign takeover of a UK company “Sometimes I have the feeling it is not scientific arguments or even in the best interests of the companies involved. It was very sad for us here in Sweden to see Pharmacia being extinguished in a couple of years due to mergers,” he added. The fate of Pharmacia is at the centre of the debate in Sweden. Despite Mr Borg’s sharp criticism, several experts on the pharmaceutical sector say the company’s move out of Sweden was due more to its ownership under Upjohn than Pfizer. “I don’t blame Pfizer for Pharmacia. The destruction was at an earlier stage,” said Mr Heldin. But he added about Pfizer’s bid for AstraZeneca: “We have all reasons to worry about the same pattern happening again. It matters a lot where the head office for this company will be located. In a situation where management decides to make cuts it’s more likely that they will take place in Sweden than in the UK.”