AstraZeneca to invest £120m in new manufacturing facility for Zoladex
Will be located at global manufacturing site in Macclesfield, Cheshire, UK
AstraZeneca is to invest £120m (US$190m) in a new facility at its site in Macclesfield, UK, which will secure 300 jobs at the plant.
The Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical firm is to build the new facility to continue production of Zoladex, an injectable drug for prostate cancer, which it says is seeing continued global demand, particularly in Japan and emerging markets including China and Russia.
Zoladex has been manufactured at the plant for more than 25 years.
As well as securing 300 jobs at the site the development is set to create more than 200 temporary jobs during the construction and commissioning phase between now and early 2017.
Zoladex is currently AstraZeneca's fifth-largest selling brand with annual sales in the region of $1bn.
This new facility will support the continued production of this important medicine in the UK
David Smith, Executive Vice-President, Operations at AstraZeneca, said: 'Zoladex is one of AstraZeneca’s leading cancer drugs, supplied to patients across the globe. This new facility will support the continued production of this important medicine in the UK.
'Having considered a number of options globally, we believe it is the right choice to build the new facility in Macclesfield, which has been home to Zoladex manufacturing – and the expertise that goes along with it – for many years. This investment is a further signal of our long-term commitment to the UK, and to the North West.'
Commenting on the new investment, the Rt Hon George Osborne MP, said: 'This is great news for our local community which will save and create hundreds of manufacturing jobs. Macclesfield MP David Rutley and I fought really hard along with the local council and local people to achieve this. This investment could have gone anywhere around the world – the fact it has come to Macclesfield shows what a superb site it is. It comes on top of the hundreds of new jobs being created on the Alderley Park site by new business after the difficult news there earlier this year.'
The building of the new facility will begin this year and is due to be completed by 2016. Products manufactured there will begin to be supplied in 2017.