AstraZeneca To Participate In Tentative FDA Psychopharmacologic Drugs Advisory Committee

AstraZeneca has been informed that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Psychopharmacologic Drugs Advisory Committee (PDAC) has been tentatively scheduled to meet on 8 April 2009. AstraZeneca has been advised that at its meeting, the PDAC will discuss the safety and efficacy of supplemental new drug applications (sNDA) for SEROQUEL XR proposed for the treatment of major depressive disorder (MDD) and generalised anxiety disorder (GAD).

AstraZeneca fully supports the work of the FDA in conducting a full review of the potential benefits and risks of SEROQUEL XR in the treatment of major depressive disorder and generalised anxiety disorder.

SEROQUEL XR, a once-daily, extended release formulation of SEROQUEL, was approved in the U.S. in 2007 for the acute and maintenance treatment of schizophrenia in adult patients and in October 2008 for the acute treatment of the depressive episodes associated with bipolar disorder, the manic and mixed episodes associated with bipolar I disorder, and the maintenance treatment of bipolar I disorder as adjunctive therapy to lithium or divalproex. These FDA approved indications are not scheduled to be part of this PDAC meeting.

AstraZeneca is a major international healthcare business engaged in the research, development, manufacturing and marketing of meaningful prescription medicines and supplier for healthcare services. AstraZeneca is one of the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies with healthcare sales of US$ 31.6 billion and is a leader in gastrointestinal, cardiovascular, neuroscience, respiratory, oncology and infectious disease medicines. For more information about AstraZeneca, please visit: www.astrazeneca.com.