Alabama Pricing Case

AstraZeneca PLC
22 February 2008

ASTRAZENECA TO APPEAL JUDGMENT IN ALABAMA

MEDICAL PRICING CASE



AstraZeneca today announced it intends to seek reconsideration or reversal of a
verdict in the Montgomery County Circuit Court awarding $40 million in
compensatory damages and $175 million in punitive damages for alleged false and
misleading reporting of prices for drugs reimbursed by the Alabama State
Medicaid Agency in the US.



The company was among 73 pharmaceutical manufacturers named in a lawsuit filed
in 2005 by the Alabama Attorney General, alleging that misleading and false
reported prices had caused Alabama Medicaid to reimburse pharmacists too much
money on prescriptions filed for Medicaid patients.



AstraZeneca maintains that this lawsuit is legally and factually unfounded. The
case was based on the misleading premise that the Alabama State Medicaid Agency
did not understand how drug prices are established and reported. AstraZeneca
also believes serious errors occurred during the proceedings and that the
verdict should not be upheld.



AstraZeneca believes it has fully complied with the law, government guidelines
and contracts that govern Medicaid pricing. AstraZeneca currently provides
medicines to Medicaid programmes at the lowest price offered to its best
business clients, as federal law requires.



AstraZeneca and the State Medicaid programme share a common goal of helping
people access the medicines they need. To help patients who have difficulty
affording their medicines, AstraZeneca offers patient assistance programmes side
by side with its medicines. In the last two years alone, Alabama patients have
received more than $25.5 million in savings through the company's prescription
savings programmes.



About AstraZeneca

AstraZeneca is a major international healthcare business engaged in research,
development, manufacturing and marketing of prescription pharmaceuticals and
supplier for healthcare services. AstraZeneca is one of the world's leading
pharmaceutical companies with healthcare sales of US $29.55 billion and is a
leader in gastrointestinal, cardiovascular, neuroscience, respiratory, oncology
and infection product sales. AstraZeneca is listed in the Dow Jones
Sustainability Index (Global) as well as the FTSE4Good Index.



- Ends -



22 February, 2008



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