As­traZeneca chair­man re­peats their po­si­tion on in­vest­ing in UK dur­ing Brex­it talks, trig­ger­ing fresh fears

LON­DON — With a loom­ing ex­it from the EU com­ing up, it’s not hard for any com­pa­ny to spur in­tense anx­i­ety in the UK right now.

To­day, re­marks from a top As­traZeneca ex­ec in the French news­pa­per Le Monde that the phar­ma gi­ant was halt­ing fur­ther in­vest­ment in the coun­try caught the at­ten­tion of the coun­try. 

“If a tran­si­tion deal does not make clear what will hap­pen in the fu­ture, we will main­tain our de­ci­sion not to in­vest,” Leif Jo­hans­son, non-ex­ec­u­tive chair­man, told the French pub­li­ca­tion. “A Brex­it agree­ment will need to en­sure that Britain does not be­come an iso­lat­ed is­land in the mid­dle of the At­lantic Ocean.”

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