By Maggie Fick
LONDON (Reuters) – AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot looked relaxed standing in the Oval Office on Friday as U.S. President Donald Trump announced a drug deal that would lower drug prices for millions of Americans.
The hard work paid off, allowing Soriot to sign the first deal with a non-US drugmaker and protect his British-Swedish company against high tariffs on imports to the US, the world’s largest pharmaceutical market.
That moment at the White House was the culmination of public and private conversations between Soriot and Trump officials dating back to November last year, when Trump won the election, three sources close to the negotiations told Reuters. And things got complicated with AstraZeneca’s last-minute move to seal the deal.
Soriot joked to Trump, saying, “You kept me and my team up at night. But it was really worth it.”
ASTRAZENECA CEO MEETS TRUMP AT THE ROYAL BANQUET
The deal is likely to cement the 66-year-old French-born Australian’s reputation as a Trump whisperer, even as many CEOs globally grapple with the president’s drastic tariff changes.
Trump argues that Americans pay far more for prescription drugs than other wealthy nations — often three times as much, according to studies — and is setting a Sept. 29 deadline for drugmakers to lower prices, using threats of tariffs of up to 100 percent as leverage.
Soriot’s charm offensive began the week after Trump won the US election. On November 12, AstraZeneca announced a $3.5 billion plan to expand manufacturing and research in the United States.
The first source said that Soriot, who came to the USA at the beginning of last week, last met with Trump at the royal banquet dinner held at Windsor Castle in England on September 18.
The source added that he met with US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick at least three times in the UK and US over the summer.
All three sources requested that their names not be disclosed because the talks were confidential.
All three sources said Soriot has also developed a close relationship with Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Trump ally and Republican frontrunner. This quickly led to a deal for a $4.5 billion facility in the state, which took just over a month from initial talks to agreement.
On Thursday, a day before the Oval Office signing, Soriot and Youngkin stood shoulder to shoulder on the field, shovels in hand, to break ground.
“Youngkin has huge ambition and his connections with management have clearly been useful,” a second source said. “The Virginia facility agreement showed that both sides are on the same page.”
ASTRAZENECA: ‘A VERY AMERICAN COMPANY’
Following the deal and a deal by U.S. peer Pfizer a week ago that boosted global healthcare stocks, Wall Street now expects more companies to reach similar deals with the Trump administration in the coming weeks.
Shore Capital analyst Sean Conroy said Soriot, who has openly supported Trump on drug pricing and called AstraZeneca a “quintessential American company,” has gained a seat at the table in Washington with smart strategic announcements.
“This rhetoric has clearly resonated with the Trump administration and its Most Favored Nation drug pricing agenda,” Conroy said, referring to the lowest price paid after fees and rebates in other rich countries.
SOME CONCESSIONS BUT A GAIN FOR ASTRAZENECA
Analysts had estimated that AstraZeneca, which has already established significant manufacturing capacity in the United States, was less exposed to U.S. tariffs than many other major drugmakers.
But tighter regulation and greater price pressure in the UK, where many drugmakers have criticized the government for not doing enough to support the industry, have given AstraZeneca a strong business argument for the US deal.
The UK accounts for a small percentage of the company’s revenues, but it is where it is headquartered and primarily listed. AstraZeneca is the largest company listed on the London FTSE 100 Index.
The first source said that unlike Britain, US officials are in the midst of an aggressive push to encourage investment from companies such as AstraZeneca and are devoting sufficient energy and effort to assist them.
In July, AstraZeneca announced a broad $50 billion investment plan for the US market, and in late September it announced a full US listing of its shares alongside its existing London listing.
AstraZeneca was nearing its own final deal when Pfizer signed the deal on Sept. 30, three sources said.
Soriot left for the United States early last week while the final details were being finalized. Every day he looked closer to a deal but it didn’t happen.
The Virginia facility deal strengthened goodwill between the company and the Trump administration, which ultimately helped get the deal over the line, a third source said.
Ultimately, while AstraZeneca has promised to compromise on some drug prices for Medicaid and produce more drugs locally, its U.S. regulation marks a win for the company.
Analysts say this provides greater clarity without significantly reducing expected revenues, which AstraZeneca has aggressively forecast at $80 billion by 2030, half of which will come from increased sales in the United States.
“Friday’s deal is the final piece of the puzzle,” the third source added.
(Reporting by Maggie Fick; Additional reporting by Sabrina Valle in New York; Editing by Adam Jourdan and Joe Bavier)
