Research Update

AstraZeneca PLC
19 October 2001



                            ZD1839 IRESSA DATA


AstraZeneca is encouraged by the positive results from IDEAL 1 (IRESSA Dose
Evaluation in Advanced Lung cancer), the first pivotal study of ZD1839
(IRESSA) in non-small-cell-lung-cancer (NSCLC) and looks forward to the
presentation of these phase II data at the 12th AACR-NCI-EORTC International
Conference on 'Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics' in Miami, USA.
Whilst the abstract of the data is available on www.AACR.org, the full results
from IDEAL 1 will not be presented until Thursday, November 1, 2001, and the
requirements of the AACR-NCI-EORTC scientific committee preclude discussion of
the data presented in the abstract by the authors or the company until the day
of the presentation.

AstraZeneca will be issuing press information announcing the results from
IDEAL I on Thursday, November 1, 2001.


IRESSA is a trademark of the AstraZeneca group of companies.



Date: October 19, 2001



Media Relations:
Steve Brown, Tel:  [phone]
Emily Denney, Tel:  [phone]



Investor Relations:
Mina Blair-Robinson, Tel:  [phone]
Jorgen Winroth, Tel: [phone]


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