It was formed in June 1993 by the demerger of the pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals businesses of Imperial Chemical Industries into a separate company listed on the London Stock Exchange.

[1] In 1999, Zeneca and the Sweden-based pharmaceutical company Astra AB merged to form AstraZeneca plc.

[2][3] Zeneca's largest therapeutic area was oncology, in which its key products included Casodex, Nolvadex and Zoladex.

[6] Interbrand had been instructed to find a name which began with a letter from either the top or bottom of the alphabet and was phonetically memorable, of no more than three syllables and did not have an offensive meaning in any language.

[14] In February 1999, it was reported that Zeneca would sue the US Food and Drug Administration over its decision to allow Gensia Sicor to produce a generic version of its anaesthetic Diprivan.