Astra bid causes political storm

Politicians have waded into the debate over Pfizer's takeover attempt of AstraZeneca.

This week, AstraZeneca attempted to garner its shareholders' support for remaining independent rather than succumbing to a Pfizer bid by pointing to its promising drug pipeline and future revenues.

The British company has rejected an improved £63bn, £50 a share bid from the US pharmaceuticals giant, saying the valuation was still too low. Concern also grew over the future of scientific research in Britain amid fears of cost-saving closures of Astra facilities by a victorious Pfizer.

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Andrew Van Sickle
Editor, MoneyWeek

Andrew is the editor of MoneyWeek magazine. He grew up in Vienna and studied at the University of St Andrews, where he gained a first-class MA in geography & international relations.

After graduating he began to contribute to the foreign page of The Week and soon afterwards joined MoneyWeek at its inception in October 2000. He helped Merryn Somerset Webb establish it as Britain’s best-selling financial magazine, contributing to every section of the publication and specialising in macroeconomics and stockmarkets, before going part-time.

His freelance projects have included a 2009 relaunch of The Pharma Letter, where he covered corporate news and political developments in the German pharmaceuticals market for two years, and a multiyear stint as deputy editor of the Barclays account at Redwood, a marketing agency.

Andrew has been editing MoneyWeek since 2018, and continues to specialise in investment and news in German-speaking countries owing to his fluent command of the language.