AstraZeneca is building a new plant in Shanghai as it steps up investment in China after snubbing the UK last year.
The pharmaceutical giant – the biggest company on the FTSE 100 with a value of £220billion – will build a manufacturing hub and innovation centre as it invests £108billion in China before 2030 to make cell therapies, which modify patients’ immune system to destroy cancer cells.
Boss Pascal Soriot has warned the UK is becoming uncompetitive after axing investment plans on home soil.
In September, Astra put plans to invest £200million at a research site in Cambridge on hold. And it ditched the £450million expansion of a vaccine plant in Liverpool in January last year.
Astra is also ramping up manufacturing in the US, including a £1.5billion expansion in Maryland creating nearly 3,000 jobs. The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry has warned that Britain risks becoming ‘uninvestable’.
It comes after US drugs giant Merck also abandoned plans to build a £1billion research centre in London last year.
Eastern promise: AstraZeneca will build a manufacturing hub and innovation centre as it invests £108bn in China before 2030 to make cell therapies
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