Astrazeneca has unveiled plans to invest as much as $50bn in manufacturing and R&D in the US after ditching its UK expansion plans in a blow to the government’s industrial strategy.
The Cambridge-based pharma giant said it will spend the huge sum over the next five years, including on a new manufacturing facility in Virginia, its largest-ever single manufacturing investment.
It comes just months after the firm abandoned its plans to build a £450m manufacturing plant in Merseyside, blaming a lack of government support.
The move to pour billions in fresh investment into the US will intensify speculation that the business is preparing to drop its London listing in favour of a new primary listing on the New York Stock Exchange.
Astrazeneca’s decision is also likely to be viewed as an attempt to swerve Donald Trump’s threat of tariffs on pharma imports to the US, the company’s largest market, accounting for as much as 42 per cent of its total revenues.
Howard Lutnick, US Secretary of Commerce, said: “For decades Americans have been reliant on foreign supply of key pharmaceutical products. President Trump and our nation’s new tariff policies are focused on ending this structural weakness.
“We are proud that Astrazeneca has made the decision to bring substantial pharmaceutical production to our shores. This historic investment is bringing tens of thousands of jobs to the US and will ensure medicine sold in our country is produced right here.”
Astrazeneca chief executive Pascal Soriot added: “Today’s announcement underpins our belief in America’s innovation in biopharmaceuticals and our commitment to the millions of patients who need our medicines in America and globally.”
The Cambridge-based pharma firm said the new Virginia facility will produce drug substances for the Company’s innovative weight management and metabolic portfolio, including oral GLP-1, a medication type used to treat diabetes.
The $50bn investment will also include manufacturing facilities for cell therapy in Rockville, Maryland and Tarzana, California, as well as a new R&D centre in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Astrazeneca already employs more than 18,000 staff in the US.
