What is the government’s stance on Pfizer’s takeover bid of AstraZeneca? Today the Prime Minister’s official spokesman was asked this – and his answer didn’t shed a great deal of light on the situation. He said the position was ‘active in engagement, with both companies in terms of the importance to the UK of R&D and the science base, with regard to the decision as to whether or not going ahead is the right thing to do for either company and their shareholders, is entirely a matter for the companies, their boards and their shareholders’.
But what if the takeover does turn out to damage jobs and the science base in this country? Would the government remain neutral on the deal in the way that the Prime Minister has suggested, and in the way that his spokesman suggests in the above quote? The spokesman responded:
‘Well, I would say that’s pretty much what I’ve just described in my opening answer in terms of as I say, in terms of assessing the potential link to jobs and the skills base to be very actively engaged in terms of what must be and is a decision for respective boards, entirely a matter for them and not something which the government is involved in.
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