AstraZeneca has announced it will invest $50bn (£37bn) in the US by 2030, the latest in a string of pledges by pharmaceutical companies as the threat of Donald Trump’s tariffs looms over the industry.
The British drugmaker, which is headquartered in Cambridge, said its investment would fund a new drug manufacturing facility in Virginia and expand its research and development and cell therapy manufacturing in Maryland, Massachusetts, California, Indiana and Texas.
The announcement comes as Trump threatens to impose tariffs of up to 200% on pharmaceuticals made outside the US. Drug companies could be given between 12and 18 months to bring their manufacturing to the US, the president said last month.
Howard Lutnick, the US commerce secretary, said Trump’s tariffs were focused on ending reliance on the foreign supply of key pharmaceutical products.
“We are proud that AstraZeneca has made the decision to bring substantial pharmaceutical production to our shores. This historic investment is bringing tens of thousands of jobs to the US and will ensure medicine sold in our country is produced right here,” he said.
The AstraZeneca chief executive, Pascal Soriot, said the $50bn investment would support the company’s ambition to reach $80bn in revenue by 2030, at which point 50% of sales are expected to come from the US. The company brought in $54.1bn in revenues in 2024.
AstraZeneca joins a long list of companies unveiling investments in the US in the face of potentially punitive tariffs.
The Swiss drugmaker Roche announced in April that it would put $50bn in US manufacturing over the next five years, in a move it claimed would create more than 12,000 jobs. Its rival Novartis has said it will spend $23bn in the US, and the American pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson said in March that it would invest $55bn in manufacturing and research and development.
The Trump administration has already launched an investigation into the pharmaceutical industry, arguing that foreign imports threaten national security, as well as “most favoured nation” pricing.
He said in May that the US would “no longer tolerate profiteering and price gouging from big pharma”.
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Technology companies have also strengthened their commitments to the US, amid rising political pressure. In February, Apple announced it would invest $500bn in the US over the next four years, including a giant factory in Texas for artificial intelligence servers.
AstraZeneca’s multibillion-dollar commitment to the US follows a report by the Times that Soriot – one of the highest paid executives in the FTSE 100 – would like to shift the company’s stock market listing from London to New York.
Such a move would deal a big blow to the UK stock market, which has already suffered a series of departures by companies seeking higher valuations. The pharmaceutical company is one of the biggest businesses listed in London, with a market value of £158.7bn.
