AstraZeneca commits $2B to Maryland manufacturing expansion

Cambridge, U.K.-based drugmaker AstraZeneca announced it will drop $2 billion to bolster production in Maryland and move its entire rare disease portfolio to the United States, as part of the company’s $50 billion commitment to U.S. medicines manufacturing and R&D.

In Maryland, AstraZeneca plans to nearly double capacity at its flagship biologics manufacturing facility in Frederick and will build a new facility in Gaithersburg for the development and supply of drugs for clinical trials around the world.

“In Gaithersburg, we are going to stand up a state-of-the-art clinical facility of the future,” Pam Cheng, executive vice president for global operations and information technology at AstraZeneca, said at a Friday press conference. “We will be manufacturing treatments for clinical trials and enabling bringing the next wave of innovation to patients within the U.S. and beyond.”  

The Frederick expansion, which is expected to create 200 highly skilled jobs and 900 construction roles, is slated to be operational in 2029. The new facility in Gaithersburg, which will also be fully operational by 2029, will include an additional 100 jobs, retain 400 positions and support a further 1,000 construction-related jobs. Both sites will utilize AI, automation and data analytics, according to AstraZeneca.

“The two projects will support approximately 2,600 jobs,” CEO Pascal Soriot said at the press conference, while noting that the planned capital expenditure in Maryland is the company’s fourth major U.S. manufacturing investment announced in 2025.

The investment is part of AstraZeneca’s pledge made in July to invest $50 billion in manufacturing and R&D in the U.S. by 2030, including a new cell therapy manufacturing facility in Rockville, Maryland and expansion of an existing specialty manufacturing facility in Coppell, Texas. The U.S. is the drugmaker’s largest market by sales and is home to 19 manufacturing, R&D, and commercial sites.

“We are very committed to this country and continuing to build our presence,” Soriot said. With the expansion of its biologics capacity in Frederick, he said AstraZeneca in Maryland will “for the first time bring onshore the production of our rare disease portfolio of medicines” which are currently manufactured in Ireland.

US, China investment continues    

Last month, AstraZeneca broke ground on a new $4.5 billion active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) manufacturing facility, near Charlottesville, Virginia, which will be focused on chronic diseases. The site will produce drug substances for AstraZeneca’s weight management and metabolic portfolio, including oral GLP-1, baxdrostat, oral PCSK9, and combination small molecule products.

At Friday’s press conference in Frederick, Maryland Governor Wes Moore commented that “another state that is not to be named” unsuccessfully lobbied to “get AstraZeneca’s continued expansion.” Moore said the life sciences industry is among Maryland’s top priorities for securing investment, as it aims to be a leader in the sector nationally.

Despite AstraZeneca’s recent investment in the U.S., Soriot noted that the drugmaker has a “large presence” in China where “companies are moving incredibly fast — the competition is very intense.”

In March, AstraZeneca announced a $2.5 billion investment in Beijing over the next five years to establish a new global strategic R&D center and expand partnerships in biotechnology and manufacturing in China.     

As part of the investment, AstraZeneca launched a joint venture with BioKangtai to develop, manufacture, and commercialize vaccines for respiratory and infectious diseases. The new facility in Beijing BioPark will be AstraZeneca’s first vaccine manufacturing site in China.