Too often, he said, the company used to measure research progress more by the number of compounds entering development, rather than by how many drugs won approval to be sold.
While it has closed research labs in the United Kingdom, Sweden, and Wilmington, Del., AstraZeneca has expanded its research campus, which specializes in developing treatments for cancer and infectious diseases, off Route 128 here. The Waltham center has about 600 employees, with another 300 working at AstraZeneca’s manufacturing site in Westborough.
The company also has stepped up collaborations in personalized medicine and other areas with university researchers and biomedical start-ups worldwide. In the Boston area, it has more than 150 academic collaborations, including research alliances with Massachusetts General Hospital, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and Lexington biotechnology company Cubist Pharmaceuticals Inc.
One move AstraZeneca has not made is to follow the lead of other drug companies that branched out from their core pharmaceuticals business into generic drugs or over-the-counter remedies.
“Many of our competitors have diversified,’’ said Mackay, a native of Scotland. “We’ve said very clearly that we want to be a pure play pharmaceutical company across the globe. We are focusing on programs that have the best chance of becoming medicines.’’
For instance, in July AstraZeneca gained approval from the Food and Drug Administration to sell Brilinta, tablets used with aspirin to reduce heart attacks and cardiovascular deaths in patients with acute coronary syndrome. It is awaiting an FDA decision this fall on its application for dapagliflozin, an inhibitor used to treat diabetes, though an advisory panel recommended against approval because of potential side effects. The company is also in late-stage clinical trials of fostamatinib disodium, a treatment for rheumatoid arthritis, and is expected to seek approval in 2013.
