AstraZeneca PLC (AZN) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening, everyone. I am Pam Cheng, Executive Vice President of Global Operations and Information Technology and Chief Sustainability Officer at AstraZeneca. It is my pleasure to welcome you to AstraZeneca's 2024 Sustainability Highlights Call. Thank you to all who have joined us today. The presentation slides are available on our website, and a recording of this call will be available after we have concluded today. Please advance to the next slide. These are our usual safe harbor statements. Next slide, please. I will begin with some prepared remarks focused on the substantial progress we have made across our sustainability targets in 2024, then I'll be joined by members of our sustainability leadership team for a live Q&A session. [Operator Instructions] Next slide please. At our Investor Day last May, we announced our bold ambition to reach $80 billion in total revenue by 2030. Since then, we have made great progress towards this goal. 2025 is an unprecedented catalyst-rich year for our company, and we have already reported 8 positive Phase III readout in the year-to-date. We have also launched 9 new medicines, rapidly progressing towards our goal of delivering 20 new medicines by 2030. Looking ahead, we continue to make substantial investments towards transformative technologies like antibody drug conjugates, cell and gene therapies and in our weight management assets that have the potential to evolve the care of many diseases and drive our growth beyond 2030. Next slide, please. At AstraZeneca, everything we do is grounded in science. Across our broad portfolio, our focus remains on disease and disease areas that place an enormous burden on people's lives, economies and the health of our planet. Across AstraZeneca, sustainability has remained a fully integrated part of our business strategy and play a crucial role in achieving our ambition to build a healthy future for people, society and the planet. Please advance to the next slide. We set ourselves ambitious sustainability targets, and we are proud of the progress we have demonstrated towards achieving these goals in 2024. Across our business, the vast majority of our targets remain on track. Our access programs are excelling. We will surpass the targets we set for ourselves for people reached and are tracking well for training of health care workers across our flagship programs: Healthy Heart Africa and the Young Health program. But we aren't stopping here. In November of last year, we introduced our health equity strategy on which I will dive deeper in the coming slides. We have also demonstrated great progress on our commitment to reducing our scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emission in 2024. And we continue to reduce our reliance on water and minimize our waste in efforts to help protect our planet. All of this outstanding progress is made possible by our people, 84% of whom believe AstraZeneca is a great place to work, and we are delighted to see the recognition of our leadership externally. Next slide, please. In light of an evolving regulatory and reporting environment, we have evolved our sustainability disclosures, which includes the publication of our double materiality assessment for the first time integrated within our 2024 annual report. The assessment identifies sustainability-related risks and opportunities as well as impacts on people and the environment. Leveraging a variety of sources and aligning with AstraZeneca's overall risk appetite, we determine our material sustainability topics, which includes accessible and affordable health care, business conduct, climate change, cybersecurity and data privacy, patient safety and product quality, pollution, sustainable innovation and lastly, talent attraction and retention. We will expand on these topics over the course of the presentation. Please advance to the next slide. As I've mentioned, sustainability is embedded across AstraZeneca through our continued commitment to following the science and prioritizing patient outcomes. We have evolved our 3-pillared approach of assets to health care, environmental protection and ethics and transparency to a new strategic framework. Recognizing the process we have made to date, the interconnection between business growth and resilience and the need to address the major health challenges of our time, our sustainability strategy now focuses on how we make a sustainable impact, taking action on climate and nature, health equity and health system resilience and how we do business, guided by our values and investing in our people to create long-term value, resilience and trust by operating responsibly, ethically and with robust governance. Next slide, please. I'd like to now take some time to highlight the sustainable impact that AstraZeneca has made in 2024. Next slide, please. Moving first to climate and nature. Through our Ambition Zero Carbon program, we are decoupling our Scope 1 and 2 emissions from our strong business growth and have achieved a 77.5% reduction in absolute Scopes 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions since 2015. We are working collaboratively across our value chain and are proud that 1 in 10 suppliers with science-based targets are working with us, which reflects our industry-leading efforts to drive actionable and scalable change. Recently, we've expanded an industry-first renewable power purchase agreement in China and have now made this platform accessible to our suppliers. Unlocking assets to wind and solar power for suppliers is really important. It supports our own Scope 3 targets and enables value chain decarbonization. Additionally, we are unlocking 225 gigawatt hours of renewable energy annually, which could result in potential annual emission savings of 250,000 tonnes per year. AstraZeneca has co-led this initiative through the sustainability market initiative, or SMI; and its health system task force, which our CEO, Pascal Soriot, chairs. Please advance to the next slide. Several years ago, we committed to transitioning our pressurized meter-dose inhaler, or PMDIs, to an innovative next-generation propellant with near-0 global warming potential through our partnership with Honeywell. I am delighted to share that we have recently been granted an industry-first approval for Breztri or Trixeo with this new propelling in the U.K. and I'm excited to report that other regulatory reviews are ongoing. 78% of all inhaled respiratory medicines globally are PMDIs, and millions of patients around the world rely on these important life-saving medicines to manage their respiratory conditions. And as a reminder, our PMDI medicines represent approximately 20% of our Scope 3 footprint today. So this marks an important milestone towards our broader Scope 3 ambitions. With our next-generation propellant, we are able to deliver these life-changing medicines to patients sustainably. We are continuing at pace to transition our broader portfolio of PMDI medicines, and we are on track to achieve our 2030 goals. Next slide, please. At AstraZeneca, we continue to increasingly focus on nature. We recognize the health impact of climate change and biodiversity loss. Given the pharmaceutical sector uses resources from the nature to research, design and develop medicine, we have a business need and a responsibility to focus on our broader impact on nature. In March, as an early adopter, we published our first task force on nature-related financial disclosures, or TNFD report, demonstrating our commitment to following the science and to deepening our understanding of our relationship with nature. As part of TNFD, we conducted our first LEAP assessment, which identify our key nature-related dependencies, impacts, risks and opportunities. Through this work, we are identifying opportunities for investments in water storeship and nature projects connected to our value chain through our climate adaptation and Nature Fund with 3 projects supported in 2024. Furthermore, our AZ Forest program is progressing with 40 million trees planted to date, and we have seen an impressive 23% reduction in our water usage since 2015. Next slide, please. Turning now to health equity. Another of our key strategic priorities. We are aiming to close health care gaps to give people everywhere, the chance to be as healthy as possible. Our strategy is to achieve impact across 3 focus areas by embedding health equity across our business from discovery to the delivery of health care. Firstly, in science, we are focused on increasing diversity in discovery, improving representation of clinical trial participants and ensuring post-trial assets to medicine products. In health care delivery, we are focused on more equitable screening, earlier detection and diagnosis, while also expanding our programs to ensure affordable access to our medicines. Lastly, in community investments, we are focusing on addressing the root causes of health in equities by investing in underserved communities. Our efforts in health equity are underpinned by our focus on capabilities and engagement to build trust with partners and purposes with employees. Please advance to the next slide. Factors such as gender, geography, income level and the environment can affect the care individuals receive, and many people face barriers to screening, early detection of disease, precision diagnosis and treatment. At AstraZeneca, we are leveraging AI to help drive earlier disease detection, diagnosis and intervention. We are partnering across our therapeutic areas to assess artificial intelligence-powered diagnostics to improve screening and detection of lung and cardiovascular diseases, particularly for harder-to-reach patient groups in lower to middle income countries or patients with limited access to hospital care. Please advance to the next slide. We believe that everyone deserves the opportunity to live their healthiest life. Yet quality and timely health care remains out of reach for too many people around the world. Our vision is to work to remove barriers to health care across the entirety of the patient journey. Through our efforts, we aim to positively impact the lives of 1 billion people, including 400 million people from underserved groups. This ambition marks a fundamental transition in how we think about and conduct our business and represents our vision to reach more patients, and we are holding ourselves accountable. Please advance to the next slide. Now turning to health system resilience. We remain committed to building more sustainable and resilient health care systems across the world to prepare for the increasing challenges that continue to strain health systems, including the growing burden of disease, aging population and the impact of environmental crisis. To support our commitment, we are partnering with health systems stakeholders to transform care by providing evidence-based recommendations and co-creating solutions through both policy change and practice change. This year, we are celebrating 5 years of the partnership for health system sustainability and resilience, or PHSSR, which AstraZeneca cofounded alongside London School of Economics and The World Economic Forum. I am proud to say that PHSSR is now active in over 30 countries. Please advance to the next slide. Sustainable funding of health care is another critical element to health system resilience. To help guide future investments, PHSSR facilitated the development of policy recommendations for EU-level health care funding. Additionally, AstraZeneca is also playing a trailblazing role through the sustainable markets initiative, which I have referenced earlier, to equip more than 10,000 medical students across Europe with the knowledge and skills to address the interconnection of climate and health as they become the next generations of doctors. As part of the European network on Climate and health education, we led the way in co-designing and developing this partnership with universities that has now been implemented across 38 European medical schools. Partnerships like these demonstrate our commitment to contribute to more sustainable and resilient health systems. Next slide, please. Now we will shift to discuss how we do business. Please advance to the next slide. Turning now to our governance and ethics. Inspired by our values, we are focused on accelerating the delivery of life-changing medicines that create enduring value for patients, society and planet and our shareholders. On the left side of the slide, you will see our values, which determine how we work together and the behaviors that drives our success. These values, following the science, putting patients first, playing to win, doing the right thing and being entrepreneurial, are embodied in our code of ethics and its supporting standards, which are foundational to our global compliance, governance and ethical frameworks and practices. To ensure and promote the long-term sustainable success of AstraZeneca, our Board of Directors is accountable to our shareholders to ensure proper business conduct and seeks to represent the interest of all stakeholders. Our Board is responsible for setting our strategy and policies, overseeing risk and corporate governance and monitoring progress towards meeting our objectives and annual plans via committees focused on audit, remuneration, nomination and governance, science and sustainability, all to support the delivery of our long-term ambitions. Beyond our Board and Board committees, our compliance lead is a core member of our senior executive team and is responsible for ensuring that we do business the right way via an approach that helps us to introduce compliant behaviors through our code of ethics, policies and training. At an employee level, we also conduct risk assessment activities and seek to foster a culture where individuals are encouraged to raise concerns without fear of retaliation. Please advance to the next slide. I will now cover some further detail on other material topics for AstraZeneca, as highlighted through our double materiality assessment. First, looking at patient safety and patient quality. Our business requires the supply of safe and high-quality medicines, which are constantly and carefully monitored throughout the entirety of their life cycle. We are dedicated to patient safety and base our behaviors and decisions on our belief that everyone deserves to have confidence in the safety quality and efficacy of our medicines. In 2024, we have continued to deliver high-quality medicines across our broad-based global network. Across 31 manufacturing sites globally, we saw 0 critical findings from all health authority inspections in 2024. We did not experience any patient level recalls, and our product availability remains high, which once again demonstrates our commitment to delivering life-changing medicines to patients globally. Next slide, please. Now turning to cybersecurity and data privacy. In an increasingly complex digital world, continuous and proactive discipline in cybersecurity is critical to prevent disruption to our business. In 2024, we did not experience any material cybersecurity incident or any material security breaches involving personal data. Our cybersecurity efforts are vigorous and our actions are guided by the NIST Cybersecurity Framework 2.0. With the implementation of continuous and proactive actions to protect data and ensure cybersecurity, we remain vigilant and always seek to promote and enhance our cyber-first mindset across our enterprise. Please advance to the next slide. Across our enterprise, AI is transforming how we work, helping us push the boundaries of science which enables us to deliver new medicines faster and improve the patient experience. In R&D, we are now using AI and data science across 85% of our small molecule programs from target identification to clinical trial design. AI is also being used to design and develop other therapeutic modalities, including peptide or protein, nucleotide-based and cell-based therapeutics. In commercial, we are partnering with leading technology companies to apply AI to address global health care challenges. In lung disease, for example, we are leveraging technology to advance lung cancer care in low- and middle-income countries through our collaboration with Qure.AI to screen patients with AI-enabled X-ray assessments. This is an effective and cost-efficient solution for screening, and we have achieved our target to screen 5 million patients by the end of 2025. Beyond lung cancer, we are also collaborating with other partners, including InVision to bring to market novel AI software as a medical device to improve the diagnosis of rare diseases such as cardiac amyloidosis. Lastly, in operations, technology is transforming our supply chain into an increasingly intelligent system with an emphasis on sustainability. For example, by implementing over 30 digital tools and AI solutions for selected processes and products, our plant in Wuxi, China, has achieved significant productivity and lead time reduction. These are just a few examples of how we continue to expand our competencies to maximize the potential of emerging technologies like AI. We will continue to build these capabilities to support our growing future business. To ensure that we are using AI ethically, our robust enterprise AI governance framework aligns with evolving international regulations and standards. Next slide, please. Finally, turning our focus to talent attraction and retention. In an increasingly competitive environment, attracting, retaining and developing talented individuals remains key to our success and will support our growth today, tomorrow and the day after tomorrow. We continue to invest in our employee experience, support inclusion and diversity and foster growth and enterprise leadership. In doing so, we are expanding our core competencies and data science and AI engineering and are investing in our people to enable our workforce to maximize the potential of emerging technologies. We value and reward innovation, entrepreneurship and outstanding performance and believe in the power of development to unlock potential, drive performance and foster an inclusive culture. In 2024, nearly 90% of employees said they have improved their existing skills, learned new skills or have had a development opportunity, and a central metric demonstrating how we are developing capabilities for the future across our business from early talent to enterprise leaders. Please advance to the next slide. To close, I am proud of the progress we have made in 2024 and I'm impressed with how we are maturing our sustainability strategy and our approach to key priorities and material areas. With that, we now will move to our Q&A session. [Operator Instructions]. Thank you very much. We now open to Q&A.

Fantastic, Pam. We've had a number of questions come through, so I'll read out some of the written questions to start with. Firstly, on your health equity ambition, what underpins the 1 billion target you have announced? And how do you define underserved populations as it relates to the 400 million target?

Thank you very much for the questions. I would like to pass to Stefan Weber to answer this question, please.

Yes. Thank you. Thank you, Pam. Thank you, Elizabeth. So this is a great question. And first of all, I just wanted to reiterate that when we said, the positive impact that we want to have with our Health Equity strategy is really on society, but then also on our shareholders and on AstraZeneca employees. And so for orientation, the ambition really expresses part of the societal impact that we want to have. Again, 1 billion people, 400 million positively impacted from underserved groups. So now what is behind those numbers is really the key flagship programs that we have in Health Equity related to health education screening. As you've heard from Pam, really important part of our Health Equity work is focused on prevention and early disease detection, including screening. But then also a second pillar of our work is really related to the access to our science, to trials to support more diversity in our discovery efforts. And we have programs related to that then are also captured as part of the ambition that we measure. And the third element is really the amount of people that have equitable access to guideline-directed medical therapy, including AstraZeneca medicines. In each of these 3 pillars, we have programs such as YHP, the young health program, on education; we have many screening-related programs, which we are driving with a health equity lens; and then we have significant programs related to open science, trial diversity, diversity in our discovery efforts and so on. So it's really in those -- through those programs that we drive the impact of 1.4 billion people by 2030. This is a cumulative total of annually reported numbers in those programs. Then the other part of the question was, how do we define underserved groups. This is a very relevant question because there is no universal definition for that. So the way we are currently measuring it, we are, first of all, basing our definition on World Bank classification and we are taking all people reached in low- and mid-income countries, as part of that group of underserved people because, in general, the people in these countries face greater challenges in accessing high-quality care and achieving optimal health outcomes compared with those people in the high-income countries. Although we recognize that is not universally the case, this is a good general starting point for us. But within high-income countries, we're also looking to identify underserved populations because they exist in any country even in high income countries. So we are basing ourselves on public health agency definitions in those countries and our own analytics and understandings of the care gaps that patients face in high-income countries from the U.S. to Australia and the countries in between. So we're really looking into insights on care gaps in lung diseases, in rare diseases or in oncology and that's why we -- that's how we are defining underserved group in a case-to-case basis.

Fantastic, Stefan. On to the next question, sticking with the theme of targets. With a number of AstraZeneca's targets rolling off at the end of 2025, how should we think about your areas of focus evolving in line with your updated strategy? Will there be any major changes to the KPIs that you report in the future?

Thank you. I would take this question. So we remain committed to our sustainability goals. And our insights and learnings over the past year will inform the setting of updated and evolved KPIs in the future. Sustainability topics as shared today are featured across the business. We will also be guided by double materiality assessment to provide us with areas of focus. And we will continue to follow business trajectory with annual reviews of these metrics areas. We can expect to see evolve targets across climate in nature, health equity and health system resilience as well as other material topics like paper packaging, API, health equity, including Healthy Heart Africa and Young Health program. And we will continue to refine KPIs to best enable us to meet our ambitions while supporting the growth of our business. Thank you very much for the question.

Thank you, Pam. The next question focuses on Scope 3. Specifically, when will the great work on Scope 3 reduction project start to show up in Scope 3 reduction. As in 2024, Scope 3 emissions were flat and are up on a 2019-2020 basis. Could you share more information about a Scope 3 trajectory to get you to the minus 50% by 2030?

Thank you for the question. As a growing business, I mean the spend in our value chain is increasing, of course. And consequently, our model Scope 3 footprint is also increasing. The great news is that we have worked very hard in the course of 2024 and an inclusive of currently in 2025 to have a great road map on Scope 3 of achieving 50% reduction by 2030 and ultimately becoming net-0 prior to 2045. So for the details of this question, I would like to pass it over to Lisa -- to Liz Chatwin.

Yes. Thanks, Pam, and good morning, good afternoon, good evening, everybody. Just want to remind that we were an early adopter of science-based target. We were actually the first company -- one of the first companies verified in 2021. And as Pam said, we remain committed to our net-0 and our Scope 3 reduction path. But as Pam said, it's important to remember, our business has grown. We've doubled our size, and we're on track, as Pam shared, to be an $80 billion company by 2030. And of course, with growth comes a rise in our Scope 3 emissions through our investments and also because we are producing more volumes. As you saw, and I think you mentioned in your question, our net Scope 3 has increased by 3% versus 2019, but actually, our Scope 3 emissions intensity has reduced by 44%. We know that reducing Scope 3 is challenging. It requires work with our suppliers across our value chain in the introduction of brain chemistry and of course, the successful transition to the next-generation propellent across our PMDI portfolio, while at the same time, patient numbers using these devices is growing. So as Pam said, we've made great progress. We've had the first approval of the next-generation propellent this year, and we're set to transition all our PMDI portfolio by 2030. We've also made reductions in our Scope 3 emissions related to distribution, moving from air to sea and also our business travel. We've also seen significant improvement in primary data from suppliers, which really helps us target decarbonization. And we've made great progress with our suppliers with the majority of these now commission to science-based targets. In fact, 1 in 10 suppliers with science-based targets are AstraZeneca suppliers. So we continue to work hard on this as our business grows and recognize, of course, we can't do this alone. We are partnering with our suppliers and also other organizations across our sector and beyond to achieve our emissions reduction targets.

Fantastic. Thank you, Liz. The next question relates to our next-generation propellant. I think the audience are pleased to see the great progress that we're making here. Perhaps we can share more about how this transition will take place with Breztri and the other PMDI medicines within your portfolio?

Thank you for the question. We are super excited, and we've been working on this for many years and very, very pleased to see this coming to fruition. As referred to earlier, we are tackling approximately 20% of our Scope 3 footprint through our commitment to developing PMDI using the next-generation propellant, HFO1234ZE to be specific, which has a near-0 global warming potential. We are planning to transition Trixeo to the next-generation propellant in the U.K. in the coming months. Trixeo, with the next-generation propellant, will maintain the same COPD indication, same product strain and same dosage regimen as Trixeo with the current propellant, which is HFA134a. Similar to previous inherence transitions, we are working closely with clinicians, societies, health and regulatory bodies and patient advocacy groups to ensure that people understand the important reasons for the transition to a near 0 global warming potential propellant and what to expect. AstraZeneca is committed to doing the right thing by both patients and the environment. Therefore, no medicines will be wasted or discarded. Trixeo with a next-generation propellant will phase in as current pack stock levels deplete. Existing stocks will be utilized first and transitioned to NGP, next-generation propellant, as soon as possible. The current propellant and next-generation propellant can be used interchangeably. Trixeo, with the next-generation propellant, will phase-in as current pack stock levels deplete. Existing stocks will be utilized first and transitioned as soon as possible. And we will carry on likewise for the rest of our portfolio. Thank you.

And the last question we have is a follow-up to the health equity piece. So maybe one for you, Stefan. Is the HealthEquity strategy being challenged in the current funding environment for health programs and tariffs?

No, that's an interesting question. Thank you, Elizabeth. So look, first of all, our vision and our ambition and strategy for Health Equity, they all align to the financial commitments we laid out at our Investor Day last year, with the $80 billion revenue target that we communicated along with our margin commitments. Health equity is deeply rooted in our day-to-day operation and aligns tightly with our strategic priorities. It's really important what Pam said before that we have philanthropic programs, but our health equity strategy is really embedded in how we do business. And so the work that we're doing in -- particularly in high-income markets in identifying underserved groups and finding a way how we can close care gaps, this will result in a win for patient society but also our business. And some of our programs already show the significant amount of upside potential there is in making -- in bringing people that currently don't have access to guideline-directed medical therapy or to screening in those markets that how much business value there is as well. So when there's business value, right, it protects the investment. And our philanthropic programs, we're also partnering with many stakeholders. We're not doing them alone, we're even partnering with the government in co-funding some of these philanthropic initiatives. So my short answer would be nobody is immune actually to the impacts of tariffs or to drastic shifts in government investment in innovative medicines, no one is immune, but our health equity programs, I think they're well protected because they are so rooted in how we do business.

Thank you, Stefan. One more question, shifting gears a little bit, relates to our packaging and bio-based plastics. The question is specifically, has AstraZeneca explored nonfossil fuel-based plastics such as PLA or PHA for your medical devices?

So thank you. It's a great question. So as a matter of fact, we've actually dispensed significant amount of effort. I'll pass it over to Liz in a moment to talk about specifics. We spend enormous amount of effort. We believe the best way not only replacing some of the current materials but the best way to eliminate emissions and carbon footprint is also start in product development stage. So a couple of examples to share is that we are -- we have an active project, actually projects around the world to explore replacing packaging material, PVC packaging material to polypropylene, for example. We've actually announced a multi-$100 million project in China to actually build facilities to be able to be leveraging more sustainable packaging material like polypropylene for our packs, for example. The other example that I would like to speak about is really the -- how do we go from the current solvents we use to biosolvents, more sustainable solvents. We're starting this early in development stage. So as you may know that the supply, the availability of biosolvents is quite scarce in the marketplace globally, so we are now also working on the possibility of increasing, expanding, working with our partners to expand biosolvents supply as well. But we are starting in the drug development stage of using more sustainable materials. Liz?

Yes, absolutely. I mean Pam has provided a really comprehensive answer. We do know that nonfossil-fuel-based solvent in plastic is a key part of our sustainability approach. And as Pam said, we need to start early in product development with that. I would also say that the use of bio-based materials is something that we're working on across our sector with the sustainable markets initiative knowing that a demand signal with more companies is going to drive improvement in availability and capacity. So something that we're working on as well across the sector.

Fantastic. One more has come in on a slightly different topic, specifically. Can you share a bit more around the work you have done on business resilience or risk assessment of AMR, such as the proportion of revenue that is depending on functioning antibiotics?

Thank you. Serious bacterial infections pose significant and growing threats to global health linked to estimated 7.7 million deaths a year globally, leading to increasingly mobility and mobility for patients and substantial burden on health care systems. At the ESCMID this year, the company will share preclinical data on investigational monoclonal antibodies mAb targeting 3 of these top 5 pathogens identified as urgent risks by the Center of Disease Control and Prevention. So AMR puts many of the gains of modern medicines at risk making infection harder to treat and making other medical procedures and treatments such as surgery and cesarean sections and cancer chemotherapies much riskier. So this is indeed an important topic to address.

And one last question that's just come in relating to China. Has AstraZeneca reviewed it's business ethics processes and policies following the allegations faced in China? Has any area of improvement being identified?

Heather?

Thanks for the question. Yes. Thank you. Thanks, Pam. So we, on an ongoing basis, review our compliance program, the health and look for areas of improvement and learnings from across the world. We have the same standard for operations, no matter where we operate in the world based on our values. And we continue to be a learning organization. Thank you.

Fantastic. That concludes all of the written questions we've had in today. So Pam, I'll hand over back to you to close today's call.

Thank you. Thank you, Elizabeth. Thank you very much to all of you for joining us today. We appreciate the engagement. We appreciate the questions. We are very proud of our sustainability leadership in the sector and beyond, and we are happy to share our excellent progress with you today. Thank you very much. Have a great day or good night.