On April 2, Mr. Qiu Zhaojun, Executive Director of Intennel Business Group, visited AstraZeneca’s City House office in London.
AstraZeneca’s global headquarters are located in London, UK. The company traces its roots back to 1913, when Astra AB was founded in Sweden. After more than a century of development, AstraZeneca has become a global leading pharmaceutical company, with approximately 61,500 employees and operations in over 100 countries. The company has established manufacturing facilities in 17 countries. In 2023, AstraZeneca ranked 46th on the Hurun Global 500 list. In 2024, AstraZeneca achieved an 18% increase in revenue and was ranked 7th among the world’s top 10 pharmaceutical companies by Pharm Exec magazine.
In 2007, AstraZeneca established its China Innovation Center in Wuxi. In 2012, its China headquarters officially settled in Zhangjiang, Shanghai. On March 29, 2025, AstraZeneca’s Global Strategic R&D Center, with an investment of USD 2.5 billion, was launched in Beijing. This Beijing-based R&D center will leverage cutting-edge artificial intelligence and data science laboratories to drive early-stage drug research and clinical development.
Based on Intennel Business Group’s years of observation and analysis of the UK pharmaceutical industry, it is evident that in addition to industry giants such as AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithKline, and Rowans Scientific, a large number of innovative and dynamic pharmaceutical start-ups emerge every year in the UK. At the same time, top universities such as Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial College London, and UCL serve as hubs for the incubation and industrial application of cutting-edge global biotechnology research.
Moreover, the UK hosts at least four top-tier pharmaceutical industry exhibitions and summits annually, making it a premier platform for the exchange of cutting-edge information. This virtuous and efficient closed-loop development—from R&D to production, sales, and market feedback—has ensured the UK pharmaceutical industry maintains its leading position on the global stage.