AstraZeneca is a global, innovation-driven biopharmaceutical company specialized in the discovery, development, manufacturing and marketing of prescription medicines that make a meaningful difference to healthcare. We have a culture of innovation, with science at the heart of everything we do. Europe is where most of our R&D efforts are conducted. AstraZeneca Italy focuses primarily on cancer (44,7%), cardiovascular/metabolic disease and diabetes (36,2%), respiratory/inflammation/autoimmunity (12,9%), infections and gastrointestinal diseases (6,2%). We are also deeply involved in projects where we believe we can make the difference: these include a significant presence on rare diseases and orphan drugs. The Company has over 750 employees in the Italian market. It has 64 clinical projects ongoing in high unmet needs areas such as oncology, respiratory, cardiovascular and diabetes. Overall there are 500 centers involved in clinical trials with over 120,000 enrolled patients. Within the AstraZeneca global trials, 2.5% of patients are from Italy, the same percentage of UK, more than Spain, and slightly less than Germany and France. In the last 3 years AstraZeneca Italy has invested almost 20 million euros in clinical research and we are firmly committed in enhancing our presence in the next coming years in light of our promising research pipeline. Current R&D expenditures amounts to EUR 6.3 on clinical trials alone.
