AstraZeneca Expanding Largest European Manufacturing Campus

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Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland)--U.K. pharmaceutical major AstraZeneca (Cambridge, U.K.) has announced plans for a US$135 million extension at its largest biologics facility manufacturing campus at Södertälje, Sweden.

The company will spend the money on a 2,700-square-meter extension to an existing building at the site, doubling its capacity. The investment includes the installation of new equipment for filling biological drugs into prefilled syringes and represents the largest single investment in the facility since the opening of the Sweden Biomanufacturing Center in 2021. Medicines produced at Södertälje account for around 40% of the company's total sales.

"We are happy about this investment in Södertälje, which demonstrates AstraZeneca's commitment to innovation and manufacturing of biological medicines in Sweden," said Per Alfredsson, chief executive officer of AstraZeneca AB and senior vice president for Global Biologics Operations. "The planned expansion will strengthen our ability to deliver high-quality, life-changing medicines to patients worldwide. It is also an expression of the confidence we have in the competence and potential that exists in the region."

The news comes in the same week that the company has reportedly threatened to move its vaccine manufacturing site from Merseyside, U.K., to Philadelphia in the U.S. due to stalled negotiations over state aid with the U.K.'s new Labour government. The government is looking to significantly reduce financial support for AstraZeneca's proposed vaccine facility from nearly US$118 million to US$52 million. In March, the company confirmed plans to spend £450 million (US$590 million) to research, develop and manufacture vaccines in Speke, Liverpool. At the time, AstraZeneca Chief Executive Officer Sir Pascal Soriot said: "AstraZeneca's planned investment would enhance the U.K.'s pandemic preparedness and demonstrates our ongoing confidence in U.K. life sciences. This year marks 25 years since the merger of UK-based Zeneca Group and Swedish Astra AB. We are proud of our British roots and how far we have come over that time -- we are now a truly global company that has transformed the lives of millions of patients throughout the world with a relentless focus on science and innovation."

AstraZeneca's market value topped £200 billion ($257 billion) for the first time in recent weeks, thanks to successful cancer drug development. It is the U.K.'s most valuable listed company and the seventh most valuable in Europe. The company is planning a move into the wildly popular weight loss sector with results from its first experimental oral GLP-1 drug due later this year.

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