How do you approach managing legal aspects during periods of instability or crises, and how does your legal strategy align with the broader business strategy to ensure the organisation’s resilience?

Taking into consideration the fast pace changing environment in which we operate, at AstraZeneca, we are continuously improving risk resilience by constantly evolving risk management strategies.

The legal function is at the center of establishing adequate strategies to cope with the complex set of emerging and evolving risks such as: the legal and regulatory compliance risk (pharmaceutical industry being one of the most regulated industries); risks related to the adoption of new technologies (e.g. Generative AI); cybersecurity risk (e.g. NIS2, Critical Entities Resilience Directive (CER); Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) risks, IP and copyright protection risks and more, including the interconnection between these risks.

Also, legal is at the very center of corporate decision making by constantly setting priorities, clarifying actions, balancing competing interests in assisting the company move forward through uncertainty and ongoing disruption.

Finally, legal is also acting as a connector between the legal team members and other internal functions creating a web of development opportunities and accelerating knowledge gain, as well as skills development.

What measures has your company taken to embed sustainability practices into its core business operations, and how does the role of the general counsel contribute to driving and ensuring sustainable practices within the company?

Sustainability at AstraZeneca is the centerpiece of our strategy, and essentially means building a healthy future for people, society and the planet.

AstraZeneca’s approach to sustainability comprises three interconnected strategic priorities. Firstly, access to healthcare by promoting prevention, increasing equitable access to life-saving treatments, and strengthening health system resilience and sustainability. Secondly, environmental protection by accelerating the delivery of net-zero healthcare, proactively managing our environmental impact across all activities, and investing in nature and biodiversity.The third step in our approach is ethics and transparency by ensuring ethical, open and inclusive behavior across AstraZeneca organisation and value chain.

In essence, there is a thorough legal touch and involvement in each strategic action mentioned above. For instance: a detailed legal framework is in place to ensure equitable access to healthcare from prevention, early detection and diagnosis to the effective treatment of disease; implementation of AstraZeneca’s bold, science-based decarbonisation strategy – “Ambition Zero Carbon”; and all sustainability actions are implemented in a way that is ethical, transparent and inclusive.

What emerging technologies do you see as having the most significant impact on the legal profession in the near future, and how do you stay updated on these developments?

The current emerging technologies can act in a way that is both human-centric and socially beneficial, the potential of AI to explore new frontiers has the most significant impact for the legal profession.

I am very fortunate to be at AstraZeneca, where AI is seen as a new frontier in what science can do by accelerating drug discovery & design. In drug discovery, AI and large-scale data analysis are enhancing our ability to fundamentally understand diseases and their underlying causes.

We are also concerned with improving clinical development. Clinical trials are a vital part of the drug development process, but they can be costly and time-intensive for patients and healthcare providers. Digital solutions can make clinical development faster, more effective, inclusive and more patient centric.

Lastly by empowering patients, we maximise the use of AI and emerging technologies patients are empowered to play an active role in their own treatment. At AstraZeneca, we are also helping healthcare professionals diagnose, monitor and treat patients more precisely and sustainably.