AstraZeneca PLC May Move Some Manufacturing, R&D Out Of The UK Due To Brexit

Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca has started preliminary preparations for the possibility of a hard Brexit, which would mean moving some of its operations away from the UK, the company's chairman revealed to a Swedish newspaper.

The firm's board has taken the "first step" in planning for a scenario in which no divorce deal is reached between the UK and the EU by the deadline of March 2019, Leif Johansson told Dagens Nyheter (DN):

"If something doesn't happen to take away the current uncertainty it will become a big and important matter for us."