AstraZeneca: Bridging the Prilosec Earnings Gap
Executive Summary
AstraZeneca appears to have navigated the integration process without much of the turmoil seen in other mergers. As part of that integration, the company created a new, centralized sales and marketing infrastructure intended to transform two mid-size European companies into a commercial global power. That new organization will soon confront the company's most immediate challenge: dealing with the genericization of the world's biggest drug, Prilosec. Whether AstraZeneca can meet that challenge will turn largely on the extent to which two late-stage drug candidates, Nexium and Crestor, can fill the Prilosec void. They'll require a commercialization effort far beyond that attempted by the former Astra or Zeneca.
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