As AstraZeneca floods money into the U.S. market with a wide-ranging investment plan, the company has tapped an in-house executive to lead the surge.
Rick Suarez, previously the company's top exec in Spain, has been named as the company's U.S. president and the head of its U.S. BioPharmaceuticals Business Unit, AZ said Thursday.
With the promotion, Suarez is responsible for heading up the company's $50 billion investment plan and helping deliver on the company's goal of reaching $80 billion in annual revenues by 2030.
So far, the U.S. investment plan features a massive $4.5 billion manufacturing plant in Virginia, where AZ broke ground in October, among other planned areas of expansion.
Under the new role, which is effective immediately, Suarez has “full responsibility” for AZ’s U.S. business organization and accountability for “performance, growth and execution” across its portfolio, the company noted in the announcement. Half of the $80 billion in annual revenues expected by the end of the decade is expected to come from the U.S., which is AZ’s largest market.
“We are operating at a moment of unprecedented scientific opportunity. Our responsibility is to translate that science into results for patients and for the US healthcare system,” the exec said in the announcement. “By strengthening our U.S. manufacturing and R&D footprint, we will expand access to innovative medicines, create highly skilled jobs, and deliver long-term value.”
The new appointment brings 26 years of company experience to the position, having started as a sales rep back in 1999. A Connecticut native, Suarez will now return to AZ’s U.S. headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, after spending the last five years stationed in Madrid as president of the company’s Spain business unit.
While there, the exec established a new global hub in Barcelona and launched the AstraZeneca Healthcare Innovation Hub, which has committed more than 10 million euros ($11.6 million) to digital health and data initiatives, the company noted.
Meanwhile, in the U.S., the drugmaker's $50 billion in planned spending through 2030 includes an expanded R&D outlay in Maryland and Massachusetts, added gene therapy capabilities in Maryland and California, new sites to support clinical trials and expanded plants in Indiana and Texas. That’s all on top of the $4.5 billion, state-of-the-art manufacturing site AZ is building in Charlottesville, Virginia.
More of the company’s plans are now materializing, most recently with a $2 billion plan to nearly double the production capacity at its biologics plant in Frederick, Maryland. AZ has also said it will set up a clinical manufacturing site nearby in Gaithersburg.
AZ’s U.S. investment pledges followed looming tariff threats from the Trump administration and came in line with moves from its peers such as Merck, Roche and Johnson & Johnson. The company's plan to take home $80 billion in end-of-decade sales would be a large gain from its revenue in 2024, which totaled $50.9 billion, with 42% coming from the U.S.