With the threat of tariffs looming for medicines imported to the United States, AstraZeneca has unveiled a plan to invest $50 billion in the country by 2030. The centerpiece of the effort is a drug substance manufacturing facility—the highest-priced plant in company history—that will be located at a yet-to-be-determined site in Virginia.
The massive investment is part of a push by the company to generate $80 billion in sales by the end of the decade, with 50% of the haul coming in the United States. Last year, the British/Swedish company reported revenue of $54 billion, with U.S. sales accounting for 42% of the figure.
The spending plan is on top of a $3.5 billion capital investment the company revealed in November of last year, days after the election of President Donald Trump.
“It is really a vision that the administration is sharing for the U.S. economy, U.S. development to create highly skilled jobs and expand manufacturing in the U.S.,” AZ CEO Pascal Soriot said during a press event in Washington, D.C.
The deal with Virginia—which calls for AZ to invest $4 billion in the state—came together in just 33 days, Governor Glenn Youngkin said during the event.
“This has been the fastest-ever negotiation and fastest-ever deal that we’ve ever committed to,” Soriot said. “In our company we used to say ‘AZ speed’ because we want to be fast. Now I’ve found another term, ‘Virginia speed.’”
The new plant will produce small molecules, peptides and oligonucleotides, contributing to the manufacture of weight management, metabolic and cardiovascular treatments, AZ said.
The company has several promising candidates in the clinic, including an oral GLP-1 obesity drug, a PCSK9 inhibitor which has shown potential to reduce cholesterol and baxdrostat, a treatment for hypertension and potentially other indications that recently excelled in a phase 3 study.
“This investment is really about our pipeline,” Pam Cheng, AZ’s head of global operations, said during the event. “What I’m mostly excited about is leveraging the innovation spirit and the science base in the community in Virginia to really drive that state-of-the-art facility for the next generation of medicines.”
In addition to establishing the Virginia site, AZ plans to use the U.S. outlay to expand its R&D facilities in Gaithersburg, Maryland, and Cambridge, Massachusetts.
AZ also will increase the capability of its gene therapy production facilities in Rockville, Maryland, and Tarzana, California, as well as its plants in Mount Vernon, Indiana, and Coppell, Texas. It also plans to open new sites to supply clinical trials, it said.
The massive commitment comes on top of several other companies revealing similar initiatives in the U.S. Earlier on Monday, Biogen said it would spend $2 billion over the next three years, bolstering its R&D and manufacturing efforts at two sites in North Carolina.
AZ’s commitment matches a $50 billion plan in the U.S. revealed by Roche in April. In March, Johnson & Johnson unveiled a $55 billion U.S. pledge, which includes bolstering its medtech business.
Other companies that have revealed huge investment plans in the U.S. in recent months include Eli Lilly, Sanofi and Novartis. Each of these companies has committed to spend at least $20 billion to bolster its facilities in the U.S. by the end of the decade.
“This kind of commitment isn’t just good business, it’s a strategic move, bringing pharmaceutical production back to our shores,” Kevin Hassett, the director of the National Economic Council of the U.S., said during the event, referring to AZ’s move. “It’s essential for our national security and our economic competitiveness. With the completion of this investment, substantially all of AstraZeneca’s pharmaceuticals sold in the United States will be produced in the United States.”
AZ’s deal comes weeks after a report said that the company was considering moving its stock listing from London to the United States. The company has jousted with U.K. officials in recent years over the country's taxes and drug spending, with AZ claiming that they don’t reward innovation.
Meanwhile in the U.S., Big Pharma companies are bracing for potential tariffs threatened by the Trump administration. In early May, when signing an executive order directing the FDA to reduce regulatory hurdles for domestic drug manufacturers, Trump told reporters he would announce pharmaceutical-specific tariffs in the next two weeks. Before that, in April, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said in that the drug tariff policies would come “in the next month or two.”
Then two weeks ago, during a Cabinet meeting, the President raised the prospect of slapping tariffs as high as 200% on foreign-made pharmaceutical products. In addition, he said he plans to give manufacturers at least a year to move their operations to the U.S.