AstraZeneca to invest US$285m in new biologics manufacturing facility in Sweden

Published: 19-May-2015

To support the Anglo-Swedish drugmaker in accelerating its biologics portfolio

AstraZeneca plans to invest US$285m in a new high-tech facility for manufacturing biological medicines in Sweden.

The new plant in Södertälje will focus on filling and packaging protein therapeutics. It is expected that it will supply medicines for clinical trial programmes from the end of 2018 and will deliver finished products for commercial use once fully operational by 2019.

The planned investment will, subject to relevant approvals by the local authorities, create between 150 and 250 highly skilled new roles at AstraZeneca by 2019, the company said.

Södertälje is already AstraZeneca’s biggest global tablets and capsules manufacturing facility. It is also a launch platform site for the company, with specialist capabilities that allow large-scale production of new medicines, working closely with the company's MedImmune global biologics research and development arm.

Pascal Soriot, Chief Executive of Astra-Zeneca, said: 'This is a strategically important investment for AstraZeneca to support the accelerating development of biotech medicines, which now make up around half of our pipeline. We expect to bring a significantly increased number of new speciality care medicines to patients in the coming years, driven in large part by biologics. This new plant will give us greater capacity and flexibility to handle clinical trials, and will also play an important role in our future commercial production.'

The $285m investment is the first phase of a potential three-part programme to expand AstraZeneca’s biologics manufacturing capabilities.

Further investment decisions are expected to be made in the coming years and Södertälje will also be considered as the location for the next phases of AstraZeneca's biologics manufacturing expansion programme.

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