HQ Team
July 22, 2025: Swedish-British AstraZeneca Plc. plans to build a new facility in the US to manufacture drug components for weight management and metabolism, and invest $50 billion in the country over five years.
The drug facility, planned in the Commonwealth of Virginia, would be AstraZeneca’s largest single manufacturing investment globally, according to a company statement.
The facility will produce small molecules, peptides, oligonucleotides for drugs including oral GLP-1, baxdrostat, oral PCSK9, and combination small molecule products, according to a company statement.
The new capital investment is in addition to the $3.5 billion announced in November 2024.
Manufacturing footprint
The facility will leverage AI, automation, and data analytics to optimise production.
The $50 billion investment across research and development and manufacturing footprint in the US over the next five years also includes expanding a facility in Gaithersburg, Maryland and a research centre in Kendall Square, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Investments will be made to upgrade manufacturing facilities for cell therapy in Rockville, Maryland and Tarzana, California, and manufacturing expansion in Mount Vernon, Indiana.
Funds will be allocated for speciality manufacturing expansion in Coppell, Texas, and new sites to supply clinical trials and to grow research and development in novel medicines.
$80 billion by 2030
Collectively, these investments will help deliver AstraZeneca’s ambition of reaching $80 billion in total revenue by 2030, of which the company expect 50% would be generated in the US.
“For decades, Americans have been reliant on a foreign supply of key pharmaceutical products. President Trump and our nation’s new tariff policies are focused on ending this structural weakness,” said Howard Lutnick, US Secretary of Commerce.
“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.”
The US is AstraZeneca’s largest market and home to 19 research and development centres, manufacturing and commercial sites. The company employs more than 18,000 people and supports 92,000 jobs overall across the United States.
42% of total revenue
The US represents 42% of the company’s total revenue, and the Cambridge, England-based AstraZeneca, aims to reach 50% from the US market by 2030.
President Donald Trump has called on pharmaceutical companies to invest more heavily in the United States by threatening to impose significant tariffs on imported pharmaceuticals.
His administration’s strategy aims to incentivise drugmakers to relocate manufacturing and operations back to the US to reduce reliance on foreign suppliers, particularly from countries like China and India, which dominate the supply of generic drugs and active pharmaceutical ingredients.
Pharmaceutical companies such as Eli Lilly, Roche, and Novartis have heeded the president’s call by announcing investments in the US.
