AstraZeneca announces investment of $2.5 B to establish sixth global strategic R&D centre in China

British pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca has announced an investment of $2.5 billion in Beijing to establish its sixth global strategic R&D centre together with major research and manufacturing agreements that will further advance life sciences in China.

This investment over the next five years is part of a strategic partnership with the Beijing Municipal Government and the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area Administrative Office and includes agreements with three biotechs; Harbour BioMed, Syneron Bio, and BioKangtai, and follows the recent Fibrogen announcement. AstraZeneca expects its Beijing workforce to grow to 1,700 employees.

Pascal Soriot, Chief Executive Officer, AstraZeneca, said, “Our sixth strategic R&D centre will partner with the cutting-edge biology and AI science in Beijing and be a critical part of our global efforts to bring innovative medicines to patients worldwide.”

The new global strategic R&D centre in Beijing, AstraZeneca’s second in China following the opening of the Shanghai R&D centre, will advance early-stage research and clinical development and will be enabled by a new state-of-the-art AI and data science laboratory. The new R&D centre will be located near leading biotechs, research hospitals, and the National Medical Products Administration in the Beijing International Pharmaceutical Innovation Park (BioPark).

AstraZeneca is also establishing new R&D collaborations in Beijing. This includes a strategic partnership with the Beijing Cancer Hospital in translational research, data science, and clinical development. AstraZeneca is signing two collaboration and licensing agreements; one with Harbour BioMed to discover multi-specific antibodies, and one with Syneron Bio to develop macro-cyclic peptides.

In addition, AstraZeneca is launching a new joint venture with BioKangtai, to develop, manufacture, and commercialise innovative vaccines for respiratory and other infectious diseases for patients in China and around the world. This will be AstraZeneca’s first and only vaccine manufacturing facility in China, which will be located in the Beijing BioPark.