AstraZeneca says no supply snags so far from Red Sea disruptions

[January 16, 2024]  By Divya Chowdhury and Savio Shetty

DAVOS, Switzerland (Reuters) - Drugmaker AstraZeneca has not seen any supply issues so far due to Red Sea shipping disruptions, a top executive told Reuters ahead of the World Economic Forum (WEF) on Monday.

"We have specialized people monitoring the situation on a continuous basis. But so far, everything is going very well," Ruud Dobber, AstraZeneca's business head for its biopharmaceuticals unit, told the Global Markets Forum.

Dobber declined to give details on its supply lines as this information was business sensitive.

Attacks on ships by Houthi militants in Yemen, who say they are acting in solidarity with Palestinians, have disrupted global commerce with shipping giants re-routing vessels around the southern tip of Africa, a longer and more expensive journey.

Higher transport costs have spurred fears of new inflationary pressures on consumers.

The logo for AstraZeneca is seen outside its North America headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, U.S., March 22, 2021. REUTERS/Rachel Wisniewski/File Photo

Dobber said AstraZeneca was doubling down on China since it was a "very important business" and it was not shifting its focus to India, which remained a difficult market to crack due to "extremely low prices".

Several media reports had suggested that the Anglo-Swedish drugmaker, one of the biggest drugmakers in China, had drafted plans to spin off its business in the region.

(Reporting by Divya Chowdhury in Davos and Savio Shetty in Mumbai; Writing by Eva Mathews; Editing by Alexander Smith)

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