It’s not been a bad week for UK plc. One of Britain’s most innovative companies, AstraZeneca, has topped the £200 billion mark for the first time, making it Britain’s biggest and most valuable company. Shares in AZ have been on the move ever since the Cambridge-based life science giant reported that it had more than 20 new medicines in the pipeline, many of which are among the most revolutionary new class of drugs known as antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs).
Shares in Britain’s BT group have also been on the rise after India’s telecoms tycoon, Sunil Bharti Mittal, shelled out around £3.2 billion buying a 24.5 per cent stake in the telecoms group. Mittal, the founder and chairman of Bharti Enterprises, said he was doing so as a sign of confidence in the telecoms group but also in the UK.
