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Washington – Astrazeneca, the third largest company in the UK for market value, is making a little more American.
On Monday, Astrazeneca’s CEO, Pascal Soriot, joined the governor of Virginia, Glenn Youngkin, in Washington DC, to sign an agreement on the company’s plans for $ 4 billion to build a new drug factory in the state. The investment is the largest in Astrazeneca for one place and a part of $ 50 million, says it will spend on manufacture and R&D in the country between now and 2030.
At that time, Astrazeneca aims to earn $ 80 million in annual revenue, half of which are expected to be generated in the United States. The company also weighs its main bag list from the London Stock Exchange in the United States.
“We are very focused on our commitment to the United States,” said Soriot. “The vast majority of our new product portfolio comes from our research and development here in the United States.”
“We are largely American,” he added.
In addition to the recently announced in Virginia, Astrazeneca is building an R&D center in Cambridge, Massachusetts; Cell therapy installations in Maryland and California; and expanding -SE in Maryland, Indiana and Texas.
Astrazeneca also includes its US Drug R&D spending on $ 50 billion for the next five years. The company did not explode in its statement an accounting of expense per project.
Soriot announced the new North -American Commitment of his company, as the Trump administration imposes heavy rates for imported pharmaceuticals in the United States in response, many of Astrazeneca’s colleagues have made statements of similar investment, of various dimensions, as the industry works to change the production of medicines in the United States in the United States.
Soriot said that although the perspective of rates may accelerate decisions on investment in research and manufacturing, Astrazeneca would have expanded in the United States independently.
“We understand the need for a country like the United States to see medicines that serve patients in this country manufactured in this country,” added Soriot. “It’s a question about national security.”
The United States Department of Commerce is currently conducting pharmaceutical research, and the same question, with the expected result. Reports have stated that an ad could arrive this month and President Trump has hinted for 200%, but over time.
“For decades, the North -Americans have trusted the foreign supply of key pharmaceuticals,” said Commerce Howard Lutnick in the Astrazeneca statement. “President Trump and the new fare policies in our nation focus on ending this structural weakness.”
Trump also issued an order by directing his administration to present a “more favored nation” policy, so U.S. drugs paid prices are merely those who are charged abroad. Although it is unclear what mechanism the White House could pursue to enforce politics without the Congress promulgiving a new law, drug makers consider how they can work with the administration.
Pharmaceutical companies also take advantage of the Trump argument according to which other countries should pay more. “The United States cannot lead to the cost of R&D for the whole world,” said Soriot on Monday.
Astrazeneca’s announcement of his $ 4 billion investment in Virginia was born of a meeting between Soriot and Youngkin in the offices of the previous one in mid -June. Sister called her the negotiation of her faster company that her company has ever completed.
Once operational, the plant will produce the “drug substance” in some of the newest Astrazeneca medicines, including a GLP-1 oral treatment for weight loss, a therapy that reduces cholesterol and blood pressure drug. The three programs are currently in clinical tests and are not approved.
Although the site of the plant is not yet completed, Youngkin told the Monday event that Virginia has several locations “prepared for the shovel”. The installation will have several hundred staff when complete.
