AstraZeneca Announces Establishment of Northern China Headquarters in Beijing to Deepen Comprehensive Strategic Layout

Beijing, September 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, AstraZeneca, a global leading biopharmaceutical company, announced that it would establish its Northern China headquarters in the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area. This move signifies that AstraZeneca will further deepen its overall strategic layout in China by launching a regional headquarters model, which is of milestone significance for forming a multi-headquarters structure in China in the future. Yang Xiuling, Deputy Secretary-General of the Beijing Municipal People's Government; Wang Shaofeng, Secretary of the Working Committee of the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area; Pascal Soriot, Global CEO of AstraZeneca; and Huang Bin, Vice President of AstraZeneca China and Head of Corporate Affairs and Market Access, all attended and witnessed the strategic signing ceremony.

AstraZeneca’s Northern Headquarters will assume headquarters functions—including operations management, sales and marketing, logistics and distribution, and new drug R&D—upon obtaining the permits and approvals required by relevant laws and regulations. Leveraging Beijing’s status as the nation’s political, economic, and cultural center, as well as its influence and gateway role in the surrounding regions, the headquarters will further extend the benefits of AstraZeneca’s innovative medicines and integrated, full-course disease management solutions to patients in northern China.

Following the establishment of AstraZeneca’s Northern China Headquarters, AstraZeneca China will continue to increase its investment in the northern region, building a Northern Commercial Innovation Hub at the headquarters to foster the emergence of more smart healthcare innovative solutions in the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area (BDA), jointly enhancing the comprehensive competitiveness of the northern region in the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) sector. Meanwhile, the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area and AstraZeneca will jointly establish a China-UK Cooperation Demonstration Park, introducing medical and health resources and advanced technologies from the UK and around the world, creating a successful model of win-win cooperation between China and the UK in the healthcare sector.

In response, Pascal Soriot, Global CEO of AstraZeneca, stated: “China is AstraZeneca’s most important strategic market. The strategic decision to establish the North China Headquarters in Beijing underscores AstraZeneca’s firm commitment to its long-term promise of being rooted in China and benefiting Chinese patients. The development of the North China Headquarters relies on the trust and support of the government and various partners. Looking ahead, AstraZeneca will decentralize more headquarters functions and high-quality resources to Beijing to support the growth of the North China Headquarters, ensuring that our innovative medicines and integrated diagnostic-therapeutic solutions reach patients across northern China in a more timely manner, thereby contributing to the friendly cooperative relationship between China and the United Kingdom.”

AstraZeneca’s strategic upgrade to establish Beijing as its Northern Headquarters, allocating substantial high-quality resources and assigning multiple key regional headquarters functions, further clarifies the strategic deployment of Beijing as the core of AstraZeneca’s development in China, so as to better address the significant unmet medical needs of patients in the northern regions centered on Beijing.

Wang Lei, Global Executive Vice President of AstraZeneca and President of International Operations and China, stated, “The establishment of the Northern Headquarters marks a significant milestone in AstraZeneca’s comprehensive strategic layout in China. Actively responding to the Healthy China 2030 initiative, AstraZeneca is committed to providing high-quality, standardized medical services to patients across China. In the future, the Northern Headquarters will also serve as our most important strategic base, shouldering the critical mission of realizing AstraZeneca’s ambitions and fulfilling its commitments to patients in the northern region.”