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AstraZeneca is to resume the expansion of its research and development operations in Cambridge, the first such project to be revived following the trade deal with the US that included measures to lift UK spending on medicines.
Pascal Soriot, AstraZeneca’s chief executive, said on Wednesday that the drugmaker would invest £300mn to complete the Rosalind Franklin building that it put on pause last year, and build a new laboratory in the town of Macclesfield that would use “digital and data tools to advance drug development”.
London-listed AstraZeneca was one of several pharmaceutical groups that postponed or cancelled UK investments over disagreements with the government about increased medicines spending.
“We would like to thank the British government for their efforts to improve access for patients, including four new approvals since the beginning of the year across the UK,” Soriot said. On a call with reporters, he hailed the trade deal with the US and said the UK was heading in the “right direction”.
As part of the trade deal agreed with President Donald Trump’s administration, Britain has agreed to lift the thresholds it uses to determine whether medicines are cost-effective for use on the NHS.
After AstraZeneca paused investment in the Cambridge project in September, Soriot complained that the UK government had yet to provide details of its offer to pay 25 per cent more for drugs. He also said pharma groups wanted further changes in the UK, including reform of an industry rebate scheme.
This coincided with US pharma group Merck’s decision to cancel a planned £1bn research centre in London, accusing Britain of not being internationally competitive. Eli Lilly, the manufacturer of weight-loss drug Mounjaro, also paused plans to invest in a laboratory site in the capital.
UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer hailed the investment, telling the House of Commons that the “significant new investment by AstraZeneca” was “made possible by the pharmaceutical arrangement we have struck with the US”.
Soriot made the investment announcement as AstraZeneca posted total revenues of $15.3bn in the first quarter of the year, up 13 per cent — or an 8 per cent rise in constant exchange rates — compared with the same period last year.
Revenues were boosted by a 16 per cent increase in oncology sales and a 15 per cent jump in its rare disease portfolio. Core earnings per share rose 5 per cent to $2.58.
AstraZeneca reaffirmed its guidance for the year with total revenue expected to increase by mid-to-high single-digit per cent and core earnings per share forecast to grow by a low double-digit margin. The company added that it remained on track to meet its $80bn revenue target by 2030.
The company’s shares were down 2.7 per cent on Wednesday.