AstraZeneca invests £300 million in UK sites

AstraZeneca, Britain's largest pharmaceutical company, announced a £300 million investment in its UK operations on Wednesday, reviving a paused £200 million expansion at its Cambridge research site and allocating £100 million for a new "lab of the future" in Macclesfield.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer disclosed the commitment during Prime Minister's Questions in Parliament, describing it as "a major vote of confidence in the UK" that would "futureproof thousands of jobs in Macclesfield and in Cambridge." The investment revives plans for the Rosalind Franklin building on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, which the company had placed on hold last September amid concerns over the economic viability of UK projects. AstraZeneca employs more than 4,000 people across its Cambridge and Macclesfield sites.

The decision follows a recently finalized UK-US trade deal that exempts UK pharmaceutical exports from American tariffs and aligns British medicine pricing more closely with US policies under the Trump administration. Company chief executive Pascal Soriot credited government efforts, stating, "We would like to thank the British Government for their efforts to improve access for patients,...