Bangalore March 15th, 2007

AstraZeneca is pleased to announce that it has secured the first place in “Best Safe Industry” in medium scale category at the 36 th National Safety Day celebrated on 4 th March 2007 at Bellary , Karnataka.

Mr. Bhasker Iyer, Managing Director, AstraZeneca Pharma India Ltd. said “We are delighted to be recognized for our safety, health and environment (SHE) standards. To demonstrate our commitment towards SHE, we have had no fatal accidents since the inception of the plant in 1981. AstraZeneca has invested significantly on safety systems in the plant and all employees are well trained on the safety aspects of the machines.”

The award is towards the recognition of safety, health and environment systems available in the plant and the good work done towards the society under corporate social responsibility. The award was presented by the Hon’ble Labour Minister Iqbal Ansari at the 36 th National Safety Day organized by the Directorate of Industries and Boilers, Government of Karnataka in collaboration with the Karnataka chapter of National Safety Council.

Mr. U.N. Misra, VP Operations AstraZeneca Pharma India Ltd said “We are proud and honoured to receive this award. At AstraZeneca we are also very concerned about protecting the environment. Our manufacturing facility is equipped with state-of-the-art technology to treat all effluents and the discharge is used to maintain our greenery spread over 40 acres. Credit goes to all the employees at the facility who endeavour each day to ensure that the facility is consistently rated as one of the finest in this part of Asia .”

AstraZeneca’s manufacturing facility employing about 256 people is spread over 66 acres of lush, green environs at Yelahanka, Bangalore . The facility is ISO 14001 certified and has a full-fledged environment management system in place. It also has Swedish MPA approval for bulk drug facility.

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About AstraZeneca

In India, AstraZeneca’s presence includes: AstraZeneca Pharma India Limited (AZPIL), the Marketing Company, with products in six major therapeutic areas - Cardiovascular, Oncology, Maternal Healthcare, Infection, Respiratory, Neuroscience & Gastrointestinal and a world-class manufacturing unit conforming to WHO current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP).

AstraZeneca India Pvt. Ltd. (AZIPL), the centre of excellence established in 1996, and an integrated part of the AstraZeneca R&D network, is the only MNC in India focused on discovering novel drugs or therapies for tuberculosis. A new, state-of-the-art Process R&D facility, employing over 50 scientists, will be operational by March2007.

National Safety Council

National Safety Council (NSC) was set up by the Ministry of Labour, Government of India (GOI) in 1966, as an autonomous body to generate, develop and sustain a voluntary movement on Safety, Health and Environment (SHE) at the national level. It is an apex  non-profit making, tripartite body,  registered under the Societies Registration Act 1860 and the Bombay Public Trust Act 1950.

Considering the long felt need of its member-organisations for recognition of their outstanding performance in the field of occupational safety and health, NSC has introduced a Safety Award Scheme since 1998. To fulfill its objective NSC carries out various activities. These include organising and conducting specialised training courses, conferences, seminars & workshops; conducting consultancy studies such as safety audits, hazard evaluation & risk assessment; designing and developing HSE promotional materials & publications; facilitating organisations in celebrating various campaigns e.g. Safety Day, Fire Service Week, World Environment Day. A computerised Management Information Service has been setup for collection, retrieval and dissemination of information on HSE aspects.

Media Enquiries:

Anjali Chandavarkar
AstraZeneca India
Email: anjali.chandavarkar@astrazeneca.com

Vivek Rao/Nidhi Krishnan
R&PM:Edelman
Mobile: 9880665023/9886440241
Email:vivek.rao@edelman.com; nidhi.krishnan@edelman.com