“This is the only facility we have in the world that is manufacturing this product in this form.”
The local facility is also the most digitised and innovative in its global network, delivering medicines to millions of people in Australia and 19 international markets including China, Japan and New Zealand.
AstraZeneca is the sole provider of a primary respiratory drug used in the treatment of asthma in China, where there are an estimated 30 million sufferers.
China in recent weeks has been in lockdown mode with the public quarantined at home and businesses shut due to the fast spreading and deadly coronavirus.
AstraZenica generates about 21 per cent of its revenue in China, according to JP Morgan. The investment bank believes the coronavirus will be a modest headwind to Chinese drug sales but if the situation significantly deteriorates, there could be some disruption to Astra’s Chinese manufacturing base.
Astra’s manufacturing is based Wuxi, near Shanghai in eastern China, far away from the infection epicentre in Wuhan in Hubei province.
Mr Soriot confirmed there will be some impact but says it’s still “early days to know how much”.
“January was a very good month for us, but distributors buy before they have Chinese new year holidays,” he said.
Mr Soriot added the Wuxi plant was closed for an additional week (two weeks in total), but will reopen on Monday.
“If the epidemic lasts much longer it will have a bigger impact on everybody,” he added.
Mr Soriot said AstraZeneca exports about $1.1 billion from Australia every year, and ships 1600 containers from Port Botany.
Carbon negative
“That is one thing we have done to reduce our carbon emissions. Sea freight emits 60 per cent less carbon emissions than air freight,” he said.
Mr Soriot is visiting Australia for the launch of the facility investment, as well as the initial planting of 25 million trees in Australia as part of the company’s commitment to plant 50 million trees worldwide over the next five years.
The “AZ Forest” initiative is part of the group’s broader program that will entail a $1 billion investment over the next decade to become carbon negative across its global operations, including its entire supply chain.
Mr Soriot admitted his goals are ambitious but he ramped up the timeline to be responsible for zero emissions by 2025 within its own operations after seeing the Australian bushfire disaster.
“I believe companies have to step up personally, and the Australian [bushfires] disaster has been an event that crystallised in my mind … that we need to accelerate these plans,” he said.
“As a company we are half Swedish, where climate change is a big priority. Our chairman is Swedish – so that is part of the DNA of our company.”
He lashed the Australian government, which he said needed to be doing more to address the “climate crisis”.
“I think all governments should do more – no question about it. I think Europe is leading the way, and US is not doing enough. Australia can do more – no doubt about it,” he said.
“I hope that the next talks in Glasgow will be a trigger for renewed commitment on this climate change issue.”
