Astra-Zeneca Case Study

This case study focuses on Astra-Zeneca, a British-Swedish multinational pharmaceutical company. It discusses the company's background, key business strategies, resources and capabilities, and implementation of sustainable approaches. The study also includes a Porter's Five Forces analysis for the industry.

Astra-Zeneca case study

Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Background of company............................................................................................................3
Main Body..................................................................................................................................3
Key business strategies of the company within 5 years.........................................................3
Resources and capabilities of Astra-Zeneca..........................................................................6
Implementation of sustainable approaches by Astra-Zeneca.................................................7
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................9
References................................................................................................................................10

Introduction
Often companies grow to a stage at which the entrepreneur himself can't handle it all.
This is a wonderful time to begin dreaming about a plan which will direct the company
towards achieving its goals, such as inspiring others to decide. They will also illustrate the
company to their clients, networks, mentors, consultants, accountants, borrowers and
customers with a well-developed approach to achieve your corporate goals (Cheng and et. al.,
2019). It is essential for measures such as funding. Focusing on the agenda of an organisation
is going to help managers discover the key to growth and set a course to achieve the
corporate objectives. It may also allow companies to develop new products or services. It will
make choices that clash, or end up in a weak financial and strategic situation, without a
consistent management plan. In this report Astra-Zeneca is being taken into consideration. It
is a pharmaceutical company which have to deal with various consequences of today’s
pandemic situation. In addition to it, this report will highlight various business strategies to
counter with competition and various sustainable approaches followed by the firm in given
operational marketplace (Fox and McLaughlin, 2018).
Background of company
Astra-Zeneca is a British-Swedish multinational pharmaceutical company. The
respective company is being headquartered in Cambridge, England. The company deals in
providing vaccines to including major area of disease such as oncology, cardiovascular,
infection and many such other related disease. In recent times the firm is giving its valuable
contribution in pandemic situation i.e. COVID. Company currently is working with Leif
Johansson as the current chairman and Pascal Soriot as the CEO of the business firm.
Respective company is well known in today’s times for its involvement in developing
Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine. By analysing the aims and objectives of the given
company it can be evaluated that, managers of the firm are working towards deriving
maximum social benefits and completion of various social objectives of the firm on a priority
basis along with operational objectives of the corporate firm (Goetzel and et. al., 2019).
Main Body
Key business strategies of the company within 5 years
Market strategy may be understood as a path or series of decisions that help
entrepreneurs to achieve clear business goals. It is a master plan to protect the

competitiveness, operate, satisfy consumers and meet the desired goals of an organisation
through its management. It's just a master plan. It's the long-term sketch of the company's
desired logo, course and goal. It is an operation and organisational purpose scheme that is
carefully orchestrated and engineered. A corporate strategy is a series of competitive steps
that a company takes in order to recruit, succeed effectively, improve results and accomplish
organisational objectives. It explains how to do business for the desired purposes. In order to
find, analysis and utilise advantageous prospects and sensitive risks, to make the best use of
capabilities and strengths and to counterbalance vulnerability, the business plan provides a
comprehensive mechanism for top-level management. In respect with chosen firm, its
business strategy over 5 year time period are as follows:
Partnerships and Mergers: In the pharmaceutical industry every day partnerships and
outsourcing take place. A strong corporate growth approach for a pharmaceutical industry is
to seek and to update sustainable mergers. The European management centre, according to
estimates, is supposed to lead more than 50% of potential business development in world
markets to the mergers of drug firms. By merging capital, AstraZeneca use their capabilities
to boost market share and power. To understand the importance of a corporate approach such
as the integrated integration of working cultures and processes would cover aspects of post-
fusion management.
Technological based strategies: Investment in scientific advances is a lucrative
pharmaceutical company growth practise. The market facing concrete threats include trends
such as increased competitiveness, globalisation and shorter product-cycle periods.
Technological advances enable a pharmaceutical manufacturer, by bringing more customers
and vendors together, to address these problems and receive immediate reviews at a lower
cost. All of these strategies is to use e-details to inform an organisation on the Internet of
product details. Customers can arrange health of people to hear about goods or get their
questions answered in real time by an enterprise. A drug firm can also use a telephone
application to allow users to search on their telephones for the dangers and benefits of the
medication. A technology-based market growth approach promotes drug improvement
technologies or innovative drug manufacturing.
Operational marketing and sales: The development and viability of a pharmaceutical
industry depends upon an integrated marketing and distribution plan. A U.S. Bureau of
Statistics survey of October 2011 recorded a 37% increase from 2003 to 2009 in the U.S.

market's gross demand of prescription products. U.S. pharmaceutical enterprises benefit from
a marketing and distribution industry growth approach (Johnson, 2018).
New market access: In such a extremely competitive pharmacy companies, access to
emerging and functioning markets are a key growth strategy. For AstraZeneca, emerging
global economies are a good chance. A 2012 study from MCE predicts that 80% of economic
growth will come from developing markets in the next decade. The policy needs guidance on
how people who know how to sell goods in developing markets should be recruited.
AstraZeneca must also sell high quality, distinctive goods and services in order to be
competitive in emerging markets.
Porter’s Five Forces Analysis for industry
Threat of new entrance- Low
New enterprises are very challenging in this industry as patent rules and restrictions
make it very difficult. The R&D department still has high investment costs.
Customer power- Low
Customer power is relatively limited, since medicines are often recommended by
doctors, and consumers cannot decide for themselves.
Threats of substitution- Low
Threats to replacement goods are low because of patent and copyright regulations.
However, if the product patent has expired, then replacement goods pose a middle level
hazard.
Supplier power- Low
Due to availability of large number of suppliers for the business firm, this power tends
to be low for the given firm.
Competition- Moderate
This industries have to face huge competition in the given market of operations.
However, the first establisher in the market can gain relative better goodwill and reputation of
products in the given market. In regards to chosen firm, as the firm is well established,
therefore firm experience moderate threat of competition in its given operational
environment.

Resources and capabilities of Astra-Zeneca
The origins of competitive advantage and the main cause of success for every
company are resources and capabilities. Resources and skills allow an enterprise to lead and
compete for consumers for its goods and offers.
Resources of company
Physical resources
Raw materials may be described in houses, vehicles, machinery, etc. AstraZeneca has
very rich physical properties. In Sweden and Waltham, Massachust and Wilmington,
DelaWare, Macclesfield and Charnwood, USA, Lund, Moindal, Sodertalje have numerous
small molecular plants. The company has many locations in various countries, including the
USA. In addition, in Canada as well as France there are many other sites. In addition, the
business has a clinical research laboratory in Osaka, Japan. The company has big biological
sites and medicines in Maryland, California and Cambridge. The firm has also extended its
research and development facilities in Asia-Pacific. In 2007, the organisation also launched
an innovation centre in China. In Bangalore, India, another AstraZeneca testing facility will
be presented (Panigrahi and et. al., 2018). This facility enables the Company to expand its
Indian business activities. These are the company's threshold instruments that help to reach
the low-cost approach goal.
Human Capital resources
Support staff focus on expertise, skills, migrant jobs, preparation and job satisfaction,
human resources management and compensation benefits. There are several strong research
and development teams in AstraZeneca working in eight countries. There are about 11, 600
people in each R&D unit. In the demanding world of the pharmaceutical industry, all workers
are well trained and talented as teams are much better than rivals. About 62,000 workers are
involved in the worldwide business (Turner and Gianiodis, 2018).
Financial capital
It's financial capital is $32.804 million in teenage years. The corporation is very
powerful based on profits and profits, and captures financial capital. Annual regeneration in
world pharmaceutical industry at the end of fiscal year 2009 is seventh.
Intellectual capital

The reputation and public brand of the company constitute intellectual capital
properties. AstraZeneca has a solid public presence and reputation, one of the largest
pharmaceutical industries. The company has obtained numerous awards such as jobs awards,
creative and wide variety of products for patients, research and development efficiency,
support from the government, etc. (Wertheimer, 2018).
Social capital
For social support it is possible to identify interactions with vendors and purchasers.
The business is also rich in this resource. The company has developed a four-phase
procurement process to develop effective partnerships with providers: assessment,
coordination, procurement and management.
Capabilities of company
The ability to integrate the company's capital efficiently is known as the ability. This
capacity comes through complex relationships between the brand value of the company and
tangible and intangible capital.
Research and development: The long-term business performance and capabilities in
R&D and growth are successfully shown by the experience of AstraZeneca. The R&D
department has the capacity to improve the company's biological and vaccine business.
Strong market relations: From both the global and local markets, the organisation will
establish a high degree of relationship. AstraZeneca's executive management team takes all
desirable business opportunities into account by taking into account the technical accuracy,
pace and cooperation.
Organising clinical programs: The Corporation has the capacity to produce possible
medicinal products by organising clinical programmes and training sessions. The Corporation
has improved its clinical testing capability by using its financial and human capital. Inter
research and development departments within the company should also integrate their know-
how and skills to ensure rare disorders and illnesses are successfully established.
Implementation of sustainable approaches by Astra-Zeneca
As per article published in pharmaphorum, 2019, the hospitality sector had a
significant environmental effect and has a picture challenge in terms of sustainability.
However, the global transition to a sustainable future puts the pharmaceutical industry under -

pressure to commit to making a positive impact on society and the environment. Sustainable
development is an enormous global objective for the pharmaceutical industry. The industry
will and does take many chances to do so when problems need to be addressed. As far as the
industry is concerned, we have had a major shift in mindset over the last few decades, with
companies imposing their own objectives and policies to reduce their environmental impacts.
Pharmaceutical companies also look at ways where they can produce their goods more
efficiently and sustainably; e.g. follow better IT practises to reduce costs, improve efficiency
and reduce their energy use as a data centre (Sustainability – a valuable opportunity for the
pharmaceutical industry, 2019).
In regards with chosen firm, as the corporate body’s objective is to provide its best
efforts towards respective society. managers of the firm aims at deriving maximum benefits
out of the various efforts being produced in the business firm in respective of to social
objectives. As analysing the current market, wherein not only a particular nation, almost each
nation in the world is suffering through this pandemic situation of coronavirus. Therefore, it
becomes foremost objective of the firm to use their available limited resources in efficient
manner. This project is undertaken with the help of managers if the firm and by providing
proper guidance in the social institute several sustainable approaches are to undertaken by the
company when conducting their respective operational task keeping in mind limited
availability of resources and preserving them for future generations.
Functionality first: It would be necessary to bear in mind here that a packagement that
is not suitable, irrespective of content reductions, recyclability or use of recycled materials, is
never sustainable. Patient requirements are the most relevant factors of pharmaceutical
production. The objective is to secure the patient's distribution with all components and
guidance required for efficient implementation.
Build waste reduction into product development: While biomedical and medicinal
industries are offering high efficiency, sterility and safety standards some obstacles to
conventional avenues of material saving, collaborative problems in both these two fields are
increasing to push progress in many ways, including sustainability. Combining prescription
drugs and medical devices ensures that products are simplified and compact in general, and
ultimately need less packaging. With medical technologies rapidly advanced, the
pharmaceutical and health devices market will start integrating its resources and expertise
into an unified, practical bundle to deliver consumer products that combine pharmacology

and medical devices, providing more lucrative opportunities through integration. It is a match
solution which enables innovation to increase compliance, employ unique medical product
approaches and enhance packaging integrity and safety.
Invest in energy and utility saving solutions: The emergence in biologics and
increased usage of generics so called micro runs is now a popular feature to satisfy demand
for customised products fuelled mostly by the drop in blockbuster medicines. This requires
that the lines are always shut down for minor tweaks and the lights are on, but not efficient.
The extra resources necessary for all this transition is a concern on the sustainable front
which encourages producers to reassess their processes and see whether efficiencies, energy
and energy conservation can be recovered. Hospital treatment is increasingly customised and
precise. Consequently, for many companies the concept of millions of bottles pertaining to a
certain dose becomes a thing of the past (Zimmerman and et. al., 2020).
Sustainability through serialization: Dynamic allocation is a recent requirement and
can be linked to sustainability. For six years, the serialisation of pharmaceutical products is
compulsory which calls for pharmaceutical products to be monitored from their place of
production to their reach. When it comes to serialisation, marketers must ensure that the
metadata used to trace goods can be read through the supply chain, including readable human
codes. Therefore, the bundle must be large enough to convey this material.
Conclusion
From the analysis of above report, it can be concluded that various strategies and
models are used in such firms to dive maximum benefit towards it society in which firm is
operating its operational activities. This medical establishment has a vital role in the creation
of strong national human resources and is important for economic growth and development,
but the obstacles and opportunities for this industry are created by external investments.
Therefore the most important for this sector is a successful marketing campaign. Changing
economic and industrial scenarios will result in adjustments and policies in terms of
licencing, distribution, etc. The dominant behaviour of doctors, patients, retailers,
wholesalers, hospitals, etc. This report highlighted various key aspects in which business
strategies are formulated that helps completion of desired objectives of the firm.

References
Books and Journals
Cheng, L., Ritzhaupt, A.D. and Antonenko, P., 2019. Effects of the flipped classroom
instructional strategy on students’ learning outcomes: A meta-analysis. Educational
Technology Research and Development, 67(4), pp.793-824.
Fox, E.R. and McLaughlin, M.M., 2018. ASHP guidelines on managing drug product
shortages. American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy, 75(21), pp.1742-1750.
Goetzel, R.Z., Fabius, R., Roemer, E.C., Kent, K.B., Berko, J., Head, M.A. and Henke, R.M.,
2019. The stock performance of American companies investing in a culture of
health. American Journal of Health Promotion, 33(3), pp.439-447.
Johnson, M.W., 2018. Reinvent your business model: How to seize the white space for
transformative growth. Harvard Business Press.
Panigrahi, C.M.A., Shahi, S. and Rathore, A., 2018. Success Story of a Start-Up–A Case
Study of OLA Cabs. IOSR Journal of Business and Management, 20(2), pp.30-37.
Turner, T. and Gianiodis, P., 2018. Entrepreneurship unleashed: Understanding
entrepreneurial education outside of the business school. Journal of Small Business
Management, 56(1), pp.131-149.
Wertheimer, A.I., 2018. The Contribution of Pharmacy Education to Public Health.
In Pharmacy Education in the Twenty First Century and Beyond (pp. 79-85).
Academic Press.
Zimmerman, K.M., Bell, C.A., Donohoe, K.L. and Salgado, T.M., 2020. Medicine, pharmacy
and nursing trainees’ perceptions of curriculum preparation to deprescribe and
interprofessional roles in the deprescribing process. Gerontology & geriatrics
education, 41(1), pp.63-84.
Online
Resources, 2021. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.astrazeneca.com/sustainability/resources.html>
Sustainability – a valuable opportunity for the pharmaceutical industry, 2019. [Online].
Available through: https://pharmaphorum.com/views-and-analysis/sustainability-
opportunity-pharmaceutical-industry/#:~:text=Many%20pharmaceutical
%20companies%20are%20looking,consumption%20in%20their%20data
%20centres.