Astra's Soriot Breaks Silence on Reported Exit in Staff Memo

(Bloomberg) -- AstraZenenca Plc Chief Executive Officer Pascal Soriot, breaking his silence for the first time following a report last week that he was leaving for a rival drugmaker, urged employees to remain focused on the firm's goals and to ignore speculation about his own future.

“Together, we are poised to achieve something remarkable and that few thought possible,” Soriot said in an internal memo sent July 16 that was seen by Bloomberg News. “Nothing can break the momentum you have established, and certainly not rumors.”

The memo sought to dispel uncertainty about his future after Astra refrained from commenting on an Israeli publication's July 12 report that Soriot had accepted the CEO position at Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. Astra's stock slumped 3.7 percent in the following two days amid speculation that the firm was going to be left rudderless at a crucial juncture, when a key new oncology treatment is set to face its biggest test.

A representative for Astra confirmed the contents of the memo. “Pascal routinely communicates with our employees worldwide,” spokeswoman Esra Erkal-Paler said late on Thursday.

The CEO didn't say whether he had received an offer from Teva or provide his response to such an offer.

Shares of the U.K. company rose about 0.3 percent to 51.38 pounds in London as of 8:08 a.m. in London, extending the stock's advance this year to more than 15 percent.

Critical Results

Investors are awaiting results from a clinical trial dubbed Mystic for a next-generation cancer therapy known as Imfinzi, which is being developed for lung cancer and is the key for Astra's ability to meet ambitious sales targets Soriot laid out in 2014 while fending off a $117 billion hostile takeover offer by Pfizer Inc. Israel's Calcalist had reported that Soriot was in the final stages of signing an agreement with Teva, leading to speculation that he had lost confidence in his company's strategy.

Teva and Astra both declined to comment on the report initially, though Erkal-Paler a week ago said that Soriot planned to host calls with analysts as usual when the second-quarter results are reported toward the end of the month.

“Given the volume of coverage, I want to take a moment to explain why we did not issue internal or external communications in this matter,” Soriot wrote in the note to staff, signed with his first name. The company has a long-standing policy of not addressing speculation unless required to do so by regulators, as in the case of Pfizer's interest, he said. Rumors are “part of everyday business” and responding to one would require responding to all, he said.

Astra, based in Cambridge, is scheduled to report earnings on July 27.

To contact the reporter on this story: William Canny in London at wcanny3@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Chitra Somayaji at csomayaji@bloomberg.net, Drew Armstrong