AstraZeneca Builds Biotech Factory in Sweden

May 19, 2015

AstraZeneca plans to invest about $285 million in a new high-tech facility for manufacturing of biological medicines in Södertälje, Sweden. The new plant will be focused on filling and packaging of protein therapeutics. The facility will supply medicines for clinical trial programs of AstraZeneca and MedImmune, the company’s global biologics research and development arm, from the end of 2018, and will deliver finished products for commercial use once fully operational by 2019, the company said. The investment will also create between 150 and 250 highly skilled jobs.

Södertälje is home to AstraZeneca’s largest global tablets and capsules manufacturing facility, with specialist capabilities on-site that allow large-scale production of new medicines. By locating the new manufacturing plant in Södertälje, the company said it will combine its expertise in biologics with the well-established culture of operational excellence that exists within the Sweden Operations unit.

CEO Pascal Soriot said, “This is a strategically important investment for AstraZeneca to support the accelerating development of biotech medicines, which now make up around half of our pipeline. We expect to bring a significantly increased number of new specialty care medicines to patients in the coming years, driven in large part by biologics. This new plant will give us greater capacity and flexibility to handle clinical trials, and will also play an important role in our future commercial production."

The $285 million planned investment is the first phase of a potential three-part program to expand AstraZeneca’s biologics manufacturing capabilities. Further investment decisions are expected to be made in the coming years.


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