By Jason Douglas Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES LONDON -(Dow Jones)- U.K drug maker AstraZeneca PLC will continue its current pace of dealmaking in 2010, a senior executive told Dow Jones Newswires Tuesday. Shaun Grady, vice president of strategic planning and business development, said the pharmaceutical company will continue to seek experimental drugs in the later stages of development to restock a portfolio facing generic competition to some of its biggest sellers over the next few years. "Our priority focus at this stage in time will be late stage assets," Grady said in an interview on the sidelines of the BioEurope 2009 conference in Vienna, Austria. The company will seek to license such assets from biotechnology companies, buy companies with promising drugs, and ink co-promotion deals with its big pharma peers covering certain medicines, he said. Grady added AstraZeneca won't neglect its earlier stage development and will continue to seek promising drugs that will take longer to get through the clinical trial process and reach the market. AstraZeneca has done 18 deals in 2009, most recently with Forest Laboratories Inc. (FRX) for its anti-infection treatment ceftaroline and with Nektar Therapeutics (NTKR) for a drug designed to counteract the a side effect of powerful painkillers. The pace of dealmaking "won't slow down," Grady said. AstraZeneca's areas of interest include cancer, neuroscience, respiratory medicines, cardiovascular disease and infection, he said. -By Jason Douglas, Dow Jones Newswires; 44-20-7842-9272; jason.douglas@dowjones.com
