AstraZeneca must operate at “China speed” to avoid the fate of the Western automotive industry and losing ground to more innovative competitors, according to the pharmaceutical company’s chief executive.

The FTSE 100 company is closely watching the rise of China’s pharmaceutical industry and forming partnerships to bring medicines to global markets. However, chief executive Pascal Soriot said the US and European pharmaceutical sectors must focus on accelerating innovation.

“We have to make sure we do not fall behind,” Soriot said. “What we are learning is that we have to move much faster. In our company, we always talk about China speed, and we want to operate at China speed.”

On Monday, AstraZeneca said it was confident it could meet its 2030 growth targets, when it expects annual sales to reach $80bn (£60bn), up from $59bn last year. The Cambridge-based British company reported revenue of £30.7bn in the first half of 2026, an increase of 6% year on year at constant exchange rates.

Soriot, the highest-paid chief executive in the FTSE 100, said the company’s pipeline of new medicines was “unparalleled” and put AstraZeneca on track to meet its growth targets for 2030 and beyond. His comments came despite the unexpected failure earlier this month of Wainua, one of the company’s leading heart-disease drug candidates, in clinical trials.

“We have to accept that we will fail sometimes,” Soriot said.