Maryland is becoming the home away from home for British drugmaker AstraZeneca. On Friday, the biopharma powerhouse upped its ante in the Old Line State, saying it will invest $2 billion to increase its manufacturing presence there.
The funding will allow AZ to nearly double the production capacity at its flagship biologics plant in Frederick, Maryland, and also provide for the manufacture of the company's rare disease products there for the first time, AZ said.
The company will also establish a clinical manufacturing site in Gaithersburg, Maryland. The facility, which was acquired last month in a $60 million lease transfer, is the former headquarters of vaccine specialist Novavax and will host the production of molecules for medical trials, AZ added.
The outlay will create 200 additional jobs at the Frederick site and 100 more at the new Gaithersburg facility, which is 25 miles to the southeast.
The company already has a major presence in the state, employing 4,000 at its R&D campus in Gaithersburg. In May, the company also opened a $300 million cell therapy manufacturing facility in nearby Rockville, which will employ at least 150 workers.
At the May ribbon cutting, Maryland lieutenant governor Aruna Miller said that no life sciences company employs more people in Maryland than AZ.
“I hope you will accept me as an honorary Marylander,” AZ CEO Pascal Soriot joked during a press conference at the Frederick site. “I spend the biggest part of my time in Gaithersburg. I also have to admit, that I have an apartment in Arlington, Virginia, so I want to share my love.”
Soriot has been spending a lot of time lately in the Washington, D.C. area. In July, at a press event in Washington, D.C., he announced the company’s plan to invest $50 billion in the United States.
Then in October, Soriot joined U.S. President Donald Trump in an Oval Office ceremony announcing the company’s agreement to sell drugs to Medicaid patients at “most-favored nation” pricing, which matches the lowest price offered in other developed countries.
Last month, two hours to the southwest, Soriot laid out AZ’s plan to construct a $4.5 billion active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) plant near Charlottesville, Virginia, which will employ 600.
At an event on Friday, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore proclaimed the state's "intention to be the national leader in the life science industry.”
AZ's pledge is the largest private investment in the state in more than a decade, Moore said, adding that the state would chip in a 10% investment match.
AZ's investments have come in response to Trump threatening to tax drugs imported into the U.S. Much remains uncertain about the effect of potential tariffs, though last month Trump said a 100% tax would be added to imported pharmaceuticals, with exemptions for companies that are building manufacturing facilities in the U.S.
Other companies that have revealed major investment plans in the U.S. in recent months include Merck, which has said it will spend $70 billion in the US , Roche, which has pledged to spend $50 billion, and Johnson & Johnson, which has unveiled a $55 billion plan.