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AstraZeneca today announced that Pascal Soriot has been appointed as the company’s Chief Executive Officer. Pascal Soriot will take on his new responsibilities and join the AstraZeneca PLC Board as an Executive Director on 1 October 2012.

Simon Lowth will remain as AstraZeneca’s Interim Chief Executive Officer until Pascal Soriot joins. At that point, Simon Lowth will resume his responsibilities as Chief Financial Officer and will continue to serve as an Executive Director on the AstraZeneca PLC Board.

A French national, 53 year old Pascal Soriot joins AstraZeneca from Roche AG where he has served as Chief Operating Officer of the company’s pharmaceuticals division since 2010. In his current role he has global responsibility for development, manufacturing, commercial operations and administration for a pharmaceuticals business that recorded sales of $34 billion in 2011 and has approximately 44,000 employees worldwide. Prior to that Pascal Soriot was Chief Executive Officer of Genentech, where he was credited with leading the successful merger between the San Francisco-based biologics business and Roche. Pascal Soriot joined the pharmaceutical industry in 1986 and has worked in senior management roles in the US, Asia and Europe.

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