What science can do

Understanding disease better

Using artificial intelligence and machine learning to transform the discovery and development of innovative new medicines.

By better understanding what causes or drives diseases, we hope to find new ways to treat, prevent or even cure them.

We are using knowledge graphs – networks of contextualised scientific data facts such as genes, proteins, diseases and compounds, and the relationship between them – to give scientists new insights.

Our collaboration with BenevolentAI aims to build knowledge from the masses of data to better understand disease biology. We are combining AstraZeneca’s disease area expertise and large, diverse datasets with BenevolentAI’s leading AI and machine learning capabilities to build knowledge graphs for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and chronic kidney disease.

We are working together to interpret these knowledge graphs to understand better the underlying mechanisms of these complex diseases and identify more quickly new potential drug targets.

Redefining clinical trials

Making clinical trials better and easier for patients.

We are developing the use of digital solutions to make clinical trials better and easier for patients. For example, once patients are on a clinical trial, we are seeking to reduce the number of visits patients need to make to clinics by:

• enabling 70% of the data we need to be collected from home, using devices and sensors
• using apps to help the patient know where they are in their clinical trial and share their own information with their doctor, as well as providing feedback on information collected and sharing the result of the clinical trial.

We recently won the Prix Galien award for best patient engagement technology for our work with Voluntis and the National Cancer Institute in the US developing a digital solution that supports women undergoing treatment for ovarian cancer in clinical trials of cediranib plus Lynparza through tolerability and management of adverse effects. 

Our ambition is to develop digital health solutions to support improved patient outcomes, including digital therapeutics, across our three therapy areas.

Improving patient access

Exploring new value-based payment models.

What we’re doing

• We stand behind the value of our medicines, taking on financial risk and reimbursing those who pay for our medicines if the medicine does not perform as expected.
• We are investing in innovative value strategies, including value-based agreements, where we partner with payers to move towards reimbursement based on the value of our medicines and collecting data to measure real-world impact for patients.
• We are working with key stakeholders to shape policies that promote the implementation of these sorts of agreements, both for our own medicines and those of others.

For example, in the US, we entered into a groundbreaking agreement for University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) Medicare patients prescribed Brilinta that reduced out-of-pocket costs for patients. What UPMC pays for Brilinta will vary based on patient outcomes, tying the cost of the medicine to its real-world clinical performance.

Improving outcomes for patients

Establishing Health Innovation Hubs to deliver patient-focused disease management solutions.

What we’re doing

• Health Innovation Hubs put us at the centre of interaction between the patient, medicine, technology, healthcare professionals and policy makers to reimagine how we can improve patient outcomes through:
  • Better public-private partnerships based on a shared innovation agenda
  • Innovation and co-creation with start-up companies and technology partners
  • Bringing innovation to AstraZeneca as we work to improve the entire patient experience with whole disease solutions.

What’s next?

• We are collaborating with partners around the world to deliver integrated care and holistic disease management across all our therapy areas.
• Our network of hubs aims to solve, showcase and scale innovative and holistic health solutions in order to optimise health management, improve patient outcomes and increase the value of our medicines – both for patients and those who pay for them.

Being a great place to work

Attracting and retaining the best people.

Champions of inclusion and diversity

• Our Inclusion and Diversity Council, which was established in 2019 and is chaired by our CEO, Pascal Soriot, signed AstraZeneca up to two United Nations initiatives that aim to tackle discrimination and strive for diversity and equality in the workplace.
• Held five Empowerment Summits across eight sites, in the US, the UK, Sweden, Poland and Brazil in 2019.

Increased emphasis on ‘Speak Up’

• The global campaign built understanding of what ‘Speak Up’ means across the Group, and encouraged awareness and provided guidance to all employees on how to identify and challenge behaviours not aligned to our culture.
• Increased visibility of our Employee Resource Groups, aligned them to organisational priorities and supported them with structure and funding.

Building a culture of lifelong learning and development

• Built a multi-tiered and blended Leader, Manager & Employee learning and development offering to encourage coaching and feedback, inclusive leadership, leading in digital, sustainability, and patient centricity.
• Established multi-tiered development centres to support our goal of building a diverse pipeline of future leaders.

Ambition Zero Carbon

Our strategy to eliminate emissions by 2025 and be carbon negative by 2030.

What are we doing?

Our Ambition Zero Carbon strategy is to achieve zero carbon emissions from our global operations by 2025 and ensure our entire value chain is carbon negative by 2030. It accelerates our existing science-based targets, doubling energy productivity and using renewable energy for both power and heat. Our strategy sets out to make our global operations responsible for zero carbon emissions without relying on offset schemes to reach zero emissions on aggregate.