AstraZeneca pauses £200m Cambridge investment

Mitchell LabiakBusiness reporter andSimon JackBusiness editorGetty ImagesAstraZeneca has paused plans to speculate £200m at a Cambridge analysis web site in a recent blow to the UK pharmaceutical trade.The mission, which was set to create 1,000 jobs, was introduced in March 2024 by the earlier authorities alongside one other mission in Liverpool, which was shelved in January.Friday’s announcement comes after US pharmaceutical large Merck scrapped a £1bn UK enlargement, blaming a scarcity of presidency funding, and as President Donald Trump pressures pharmaceutical companies to speculate extra within the US.An AstraZeneca spokesperson mentioned: “We continuously reassess the funding wants of our firm and might verify our enlargement in Cambridge is paused.”During the last 10 years, UK spending on medicines has fallen from 15% of the NHS funds to 9%, whereas the remainder of the developed world spends between 14% and 20%. In the meantime, pharmaceutical firms have been seeking to spend money on the US following Trump’s threats of sky-high tariffs on drug imports.In July, AstraZeneca mentioned it might make investments $50bn (£36.9bn) within the US on “medicines manufacturing and R&D [research and development]”.Earlier this week Merck, which had already begun building on a web site in London’s King’s Cross which was attributable to be accomplished by 2027, mentioned it now not deliberate to occupy it.The multi-national enterprise, often called MSD in Europe, mentioned it might transfer its life sciences analysis to the US and reduce UK jobs, blaming successive governments for undervaluing progressive medicines.Getty ImagesAstraZeneca boss Pascal Soriot introduced the agency’s $50bn funding within the US in JulyAstraZeneca’s announcement on Friday means not one of the £650m UK funding trumpeted by the final authorities will at the moment occur.The paused Cambridge mission would have been an enlargement of its present Discovery Centre, which already hosts 2,300 researchers and scientists.The stoppage comes after it scrapped plans to speculate £450m in increasing a vaccine manufacturing plant in Merseyside in January, blaming a discount in authorities assist.It mentioned on the time that after “protracted” talks, quite a few elements influenced the transfer, together with “the timing and discount of the ultimate supply in comparison with the earlier authorities’s proposal”.Successive UK governments have pointed to life sciences as one in every of its most profitable industries.Former chancellor Jeremy Hunt mentioned the sector was “essential for the nation’s well being, wealth and resilience” whereas Chancellor Rachel Reeves mentioned AstraZeneca was one of many UK’s “nice firms” days earlier than it scrapped its Liverpool enlargement.