AstraZeneca unveils plans for £37bn investment in US amid tariff threats
It will also expand research and development (R&D) and cell therapy manufacturing in Maryland, Massachusetts, California, Indiana and Texas.
The announcement marks the latest by a global pharmaceutical giant to expand its footprint in the US as Mr Trump has threatened to impose tariffs of up to 20% on drug imports in an effort to increase manufacturing in America and drive down costs for Americans.
AstraZeneca said the mammoth investment will create tens of thousands of jobs across the US, 'powering growth and delivering next-generation medicines for patients in America and worldwide'.
The Anglo-Swedish group, which is listed on the FTSE 100, said the investment will also help it towards the group's target of reaching 80 billion US dollars (£59.4 billion) in revenues by 2030.
Half of this is expected to come from the US, it added.
Pascal Soriot, chief executive of AstraZeneca, said: 'Today's announcement underpins our belief in America's innovation in biopharmaceuticals and our commitment to the millions of patients who need our medicines in America and globally.'
Despite being headquartered in the UK, America is AstraZeneca's largest market, where it employs more than 18,000 staff and makes 42% of total group sales.
It already has 19 R&D, manufacturing and commercial sites across the country.
The new factory planned for Virginia will produce drug substances for the company's weight management and metabolic portfolio, it said.
Howard Lutnick, US Secretary of Commerce, said: 'For decades Americans have been reliant on foreign supply of key pharmaceutical products.
'President Trump and our nation's new tariff policies are focused on ending this structural weakness.
'We are proud that AstraZeneca has made the decision to bring substantial pharmaceutical production to our shores.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
South Wales Argus
8 minutes ago
- South Wales Argus
Tariff of 15% ‘challenging' but avoids a trade war
Peter Burke said that the EU-US deal avoids both a trade war and EU counter-measures, which would have had an effect on the north-south economy. He said 'the devil is in the detail' of the trade agreement finalised on Sunday by Donald Trump and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen in Scotland. 'We had a lot of modelling carried out on the various different options, and some were very perverse, that would have closed the market if you had over a 30% tariff with a stacking mechanism,' Mr Burke told RTE Radio. 'The key thing is that there will be a number of carve outs. Obviously, aviation has been cited as zero-for-zero, but also in relation to agrifoods and potentially spirits.' The bloc is set to face 15% tariffs on most of its goods including cars, semiconductors and pharmaceuticals entering the US and 'zero for zero' tariffs on a number of products including aircraft, some agricultural goods and certain chemicals – as well as EU purchases of US energy worth 750 billion dollars over three years. Mr Burke said it was his understanding that the 15% tariff on the pharmaceutical sector would be a maximum rate. He added: 'I think the president of the Commission has been very clear that 15% will be a ceiling.' It is still unclear from the deal, agreed five days before Mr Trump's threat of a 30% tariff would have come into effect, will mean Ireland will need to invest in US energy, he added. 'This all has to be worked out yet, as you can appreciate, I'm only hearing this for the first time last night, and we have nothing on paper.' Ireland's premier Micheal Martin and deputy premier Simon Harris welcomed the agreement struck on Sunday, saying that while Ireland 'regrets' the baseline tariff of 15%, it welcomed the certainty for businesses. Mr Harris said further detail was needed around how tariffs would affect sectors including pharmaceuticals. Ireland remains vulnerable to a slow down in trade with the US economy, due to exports of products such as alcohol, dairy and beef. The Irish government has also expressed concern at how tariffs could affect pharma multinationals based in Ireland, which employs about 45,000 people in Ireland, as Mr Trump had signalled he intended to target that industry. In addition, 65% of all aircraft are leased through Ireland globally. Last week, Finance Minister Paschal Dohonoe said the Irish government would spend 9.4 billion euro on its budget in October, based on a zero-tariff scenario for next year. He and Public Expenditure Minister Jack Chambers said these estimates would need to be revised if there was a shock to the Irish economy. Mr Burke said it was not naive to base the government's economic scenario on a zero-for-zero trade agreement with the US. 'No it wasn't because we didn't know what we were to be faced with,' he said on Monday. 'We do need to find out what happens in other areas, because this is very complex. 'It depends what happens with China, that's a very significant market that a deal hasn't happened yet. 'It really impacts what happens with our exporters here in Ireland as well, because so much product is in danger of being redirected into EU market. 'We also don't know what separate carve outs are going to emerge for the different sectors that are so vulnerable from an Irish perspective. 'Until we get flesh on the bones and all those areas over the coming weeks, we'll be in a better position then to really put forward what budgetary parameters (we) will end up with.'
South Wales Guardian
8 minutes ago
- South Wales Guardian
Tariff of 15% ‘challenging' but avoids a trade war
Peter Burke said that the EU-US deal avoids both a trade war and EU counter-measures, which would have had an effect on the north-south economy. He said 'the devil is in the detail' of the trade agreement finalised on Sunday by Donald Trump and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen in Scotland. 'We had a lot of modelling carried out on the various different options, and some were very perverse, that would have closed the market if you had over a 30% tariff with a stacking mechanism,' Mr Burke told RTE Radio. 'The key thing is that there will be a number of carve outs. Obviously, aviation has been cited as zero-for-zero, but also in relation to agrifoods and potentially spirits.' The bloc is set to face 15% tariffs on most of its goods including cars, semiconductors and pharmaceuticals entering the US and 'zero for zero' tariffs on a number of products including aircraft, some agricultural goods and certain chemicals – as well as EU purchases of US energy worth 750 billion dollars over three years. Mr Burke said it was his understanding that the 15% tariff on the pharmaceutical sector would be a maximum rate. He added: 'I think the president of the Commission has been very clear that 15% will be a ceiling.' It is still unclear from the deal, agreed five days before Mr Trump's threat of a 30% tariff would have come into effect, will mean Ireland will need to invest in US energy, he added. 'This all has to be worked out yet, as you can appreciate, I'm only hearing this for the first time last night, and we have nothing on paper.' Ireland's premier Micheal Martin and deputy premier Simon Harris welcomed the agreement struck on Sunday, saying that while Ireland 'regrets' the baseline tariff of 15%, it welcomed the certainty for businesses. Mr Harris said further detail was needed around how tariffs would affect sectors including pharmaceuticals. Ireland remains vulnerable to a slow down in trade with the US economy, due to exports of products such as alcohol, dairy and beef. The Irish government has also expressed concern at how tariffs could affect pharma multinationals based in Ireland, which employs about 45,000 people in Ireland, as Mr Trump had signalled he intended to target that industry. In addition, 65% of all aircraft are leased through Ireland globally. Last week, Finance Minister Paschal Dohonoe said the Irish government would spend 9.4 billion euro on its budget in October, based on a zero-tariff scenario for next year. He and Public Expenditure Minister Jack Chambers said these estimates would need to be revised if there was a shock to the Irish economy. Mr Burke said it was not naive to base the government's economic scenario on a zero-for-zero trade agreement with the US. 'No it wasn't because we didn't know what we were to be faced with,' he said on Monday. 'We do need to find out what happens in other areas, because this is very complex. 'It depends what happens with China, that's a very significant market that a deal hasn't happened yet. 'It really impacts what happens with our exporters here in Ireland as well, because so much product is in danger of being redirected into EU market. 'We also don't know what separate carve outs are going to emerge for the different sectors that are so vulnerable from an Irish perspective. 'Until we get flesh on the bones and all those areas over the coming weeks, we'll be in a better position then to really put forward what budgetary parameters (we) will end up with.'
Daily Mail
8 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Labour admits BREXIT is to thank for Britain securing a better US trade deal than Europe - as bloc's leaders hit out at their 'badly negotiated' agreement
Brexit is to thank for Britain securing a better trade deal with the US than Europe, Labour admitted yesterday. Jonathan Reynolds, the Business Secretary, said there was 'absolutely no doubt' that the UK was better off as a result of having its own trade policy. His comments came after Donald Trump announced he had agreed 'the biggest deal ever made' between the US and the European Union. The agreement will subject the EU to 15per cent tariffs on most of its goods entering America. It is lower than a 30per cent levy previously threatened by the US president - but worse than the UK's deal - and was quickly lambasted by European leaders. After a day playing golf in Scotland yesterday, Mr Trump met the president of the EU Commission Ursula von der Leyen to discuss the broad terms of an agreement. But Viktor Orban, the Hungarian PM, hit out: 'Donald Trump ate von der Leyen for breakfast'. 'This is what happened and we suspected this would happen as the U.S. president is a heavyweight when it comes to negotiations while Madame President is featherweight.' Former Belgian prime minister Guy Verhofstadt branded the deal 'scandalous' and 'badly negotiated', saying there was 'not one concession from the American side'. French prime minister François Bayrou said: 'It is a dark day when an alliance of free peoples, united to affirm their values and defend their interests, resolves to submission.' And Bernd Lange, the EU Parliament's trade chief, said: 'My first assessment: Not satisfactory. 'This is a lopsided deal. Concessions have clearly been made that are difficult to accept. Deal with significant imbalance. Furthermore lot of questions still open.' But Ms von der Leyen said the deal was 'huge', adding: 'It will bring stability. It will bring predictability. That's very important for our businesses on both sides of the Atlantic.' Mr Trump said the 'partnership' would 'bring us very close together'. He added: 'I think it's great that we made a deal today instead of playing games and maybe not making a deal at all.' Full details of the deal have not yet been confirmed, and a written text still needs to be agreed. But the agreement is worse than a similar deal struck between the UK and US, which will see tariffs of only 10per cent placed on British exports. Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds this morning admitted that the UK's favourable deal was a direct benefit of Brexit. He told Sky News: 'All of the trade negotiations that we've got use the fact that we are not part of the customs union anymore, I'm absolutely clear of that. I think we can make the best of that.' Pressed on whether he would call it a Brexit benefit, he added: 'I'm absolutely clear, I've said in Parliament many times, this is a benefit of being out of the European Union, having our independent trade policy, absolutely no doubt about that.' When the UK and US signed a trade deal in June, it reduced tariffs on car and aerospace imports to the US. But agreement on a similar arrangement for Britain's steel imports was not reached, leaving tariffs on steel at 25per cent. American concerns over steel products made elsewhere in the world, then finished in the UK, are said to be among the sticking points. Sir Keir Starmer is expected to spend most of the day with President Trump on Monday, when he will have a chance to press the president on a steel deal. But Business Secretary Mr Reynolds suggested it may take more than a meeting between the two leaders to resolve the matter, telling BBC Breakfast: 'We were very happy to announce the breakthrough that we had a few months ago in relation to sectors like automotive, aerospace, which are really important to the UK economy. 'But we always said it was job saved, but it wasn't job done. There's more to do. The negotiations have been going on on a daily basis since then. There's a few issues to push a little bit further today. 'We won't perhaps have anything to announce a resolution of those talks, but there's some sectors that we still need to resolve, particularly around steel and aluminium, and there's the wider conversation about what the US calls its reciprocal tariffs.'
