The first stage of AstraZeneca’s promised $50 billion investment in US facilities is underway as it breaks ground on a facility in Virginia that will be used to make drug substances for a range of its new medicines.
Work has started on the site near Charlottesville, in Albemarle County, as AZ and other pharma groups embark on a wave of capital investment projects designed to comply with President Trump’s push for medicines used in the US to also be manufactured there.
In a statement, AZ said that the new facility will cost around $4.5 billion to set up, creating approximately 3,600 direct and indirect jobs. When completed in around five years’ time, it will employ 600 full-time workers, including engineers, scientists, and process facilitators, and will be the group’s largest manufacturing plant worldwide.
Medicines due to be made there include AZ’s oral GLP-1 candidates for diabetes and weight loss, baxdrostat for high blood pressure, oral PCSK9 drug AZD0780 for cholesterol-lowering, and various combination small-molecule products.
The investment was announced previously but has increased by $500 million to accommodate the production of a wider range of medicines, including antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) for cancer, and a headcount 100 higher than originally planned.
AZ revealed its $50 billion investment programme in July, in the midst of industry concerns about threatened tariffs on pharmaceutical imports into the US – now set to come into effect with a base rate of 100% – and the promise of concessions to companies that commit to shifting manufacturing of drugs intended for use by Americans to the US.
At the time, it said the investment in the world’s largest pharma market will support the target of growing annual revenues to $80 billion by 2030, half from the US market, from a level of just over $54 billion last year.
The groundbreaking ceremony was attended by Dr Mehmet Oz, Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), who said that it “demonstrates the Trump Administration’s commitment to onshoring drug manufacturing and strengthening supply chains to improve Americans’ access to medication. I congratulate AstraZeneca for their investment and invite other foreign manufacturers to follow suit.”
AZ’s investment in the US comes after it pulled out of a smaller investment programme in the UK in protest at what is said were difficulties in achieving fair prices for medicines accessed via the NHS.
It also follows a decision to list on the New York Stock Exchange and the launch of a direct-to-consumer (DTC) sales channel for some of AZ’s medicines in the US.
“With our $4.5 billion investment in Virginia, the largest in AstraZeneca’s history, we are not only building a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility, but also driving life sciences innovation and economic growth,” said chief executive Pascal Soriot.
“This new facility will create thousands of jobs and strengthen America’s national security and health sovereignty.”
