CRESTOR

AstraZeneca PLC
31 March 2008


CRESTOR OUTCOMES STUDY JUPITER CLOSES EARLY DUE TO UNEQUIVOCAL EVIDENCE OF
BENEFIT

AstraZeneca today announced it has decided to stop the CRESTOR JUPITER clinical
study early based on a recommendation from an Independent Data Monitoring Board
and the JUPITER Steering Committee, which met on March 29, 2008. The study will
be stopped early because there is unequivocal evidence of a reduction in
cardiovascular morbidity and mortality amongst patients who received CRESTOR
when compared to placebo.


JUPITER (Justification for the Use of statins in Primary prevention: an
Intervention Trial Evaluating Rosuvastatin) was designed to determine if
treating patients with no evidence of pre-existing cardiovascular disease and
low to normal LDL-C but elevated C-reactive protein (CRP) with CRESTOR 20mg once
daily would reduce major cardiovascular events. CRP is a recognized marker of
inflammation and is associated with an increased risk of atherosclerotic
cardiovascular events.
The JUPITER study team has initiated activities to close this large multi-center
study. Over 15,000 trial participants will be scheduled by their investigator
for final assessments at over 1,200 sites in 26 countries. Data from these
visits will be collected and reviewed to allow a full and complete analysis and
final results of the study will be published once the analysis is complete.


JUPITER is one study from the global research initiative known as the GALAXY
programme, which has now recruited more than 64,000 patients from 55 countries
worldwide, to investigate the impact of CRESTOR on cardiovascular risk reduction
and patient outcomes.


About AstraZeneca

AstraZeneca is a major international healthcare business engaged in the
research, development, manufacture and marketing of prescription pharmaceuticals
and the supply of healthcare services. It is one of the world's leading
pharmaceutical companies with healthcare sales of $29.55 billion and leading
positions in sales of gastrointestinal, cardiovascular, neuroscience,
respiratory, oncology and infection products. AstraZeneca is listed in the Dow
Jones Sustainability Index (Global) as well as the FTSE4Good Index.

For more information about AstraZeneca please visit: www.astrazeneca.com

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