Director/PDMR Shareholding

AstraZeneca PLC
28 March 2006


Dealing by Directors
Companies Act 1985 Sections 324/329


We hereby inform you that on 24 March 2006 the following Directors of
AstraZeneca PLC were each granted an award under the terms of the AstraZeneca
Performance Share Plan over the Company's USD0.25 Ordinary Shares.


                      Target number of   Award price                    Total interest in  Percentage of
                      shares awarded     per share   Normal vesting     shares after this  shares in issue
                                                     date               award
                                                     
Name of Director


D R Brennan           73,109             2975p       24 March 2009      See below          See below

J R Symonds           41,646             2975p       24 March 2009      108,430            0.007%

J S Patterson         32,319             2975p       24 March 2009      81,390             0.005%


The AstraZeneca Performance Share Plan was approved by shareholders at the
Company's AGM in 2005.  Awards made under the Plan may not generally vest before
the third anniversary of the relevant date of grant nor unless the specified
performance target(s) have been met at the end of the three year period which,
for this award, is 1 January 2006 to 31 December 2008.



The performance target that applies to this award is the Company's Total
Shareholder Return ('TSR') compared to the TSR of a selected peer group of 12
other pharmaceutical companies.  The actual number of shares to which a
participant may become unconditionally entitled will depend on the extent to
which the performance target(s) have been met.  A summary of the Plan, including
a more detailed explanation of the performance target(s), can be found in the
AstraZeneca Annual Report and Form 20-F Information 2005 which is available on
the Company's website www.astrazeneca.com.



On 25 March 2005, David R Brennan, a Director of the Company, became
unconditionally entitled to a final award of 31,780 American Depositary Shares
(ADSs) on the partial vesting of an original target award of 33,104 ADSs, which
were awarded to him in March 2003 under the terms of the AstraZeneca US
Executive Performance Share Plan.  Mr Brennan has ceased to have an interest in
the 1,324 ADSs of the original target award that did not vest.  The closing
price of AstraZeneca ADSs on 24 March 2006 was US$51.73.  One ADS equals one
Ordinary Share.  In total, Mr Brennan now has an interest in 79,461 Ordinary
Shares and 170,764 ADSs which together represent approximately 0.016% of the
number of shares currently in issue.


G H R Musker
Company Secretary
28 March 2006




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