AstraZeneca set to inject £650m in major ‘vote of confidence’ for Britain

Astrazeneca will inject £650million into Britain’s world-leading pharmaceutical industry in a major boost to the economy.

The FTSE 100 group will plough £450million into researching, developing and manufacturing new vaccines at its plant in Speke, Liverpool.

The drugs giant, which developed a Covid vaccine with Oxford University, will also spend £200million on expanding at Europe’s largest life sciences cluster in Cambridge.

The plans were announced by Jeremy Hunt yesterday, when he referred to the French boss of AstraZeneca Sir Pascal Soriot as ‘mon ami’ – or ‘my friend’.

Hailing ‘more investment and better jobs in every corner of the country’, the Chancellor said: ‘AstraZeneca’s investment plans are a vote of confidence in the attractiveness of UK as a life sciences superpower and strengthen our resilience for future health emergencies.’

Mon ami: Astrazeneca boss Pascal Soriot will plough £450m into researching, developing and manufacturing new vaccines at its plant in Speke, Liverpool

The investment suggested Soriot’s faith in Britain has been restored after he last February called the UK a ‘very unattractive’ place to do business.

He pointed to Astra’s decision to build a factory in Ireland instead of the UK as evidence of Britain becoming less attractive. 

But Soriot last month told the Mail: ‘The environment in the UK for life sciences today is different from what it was almost a year ago.’

And he yesterday said the planned investment will ‘enhance the UK’s pandemic preparedness and demonstrates our confidence in UK life sciences’.

Astra already develops jabs for children in Speke while the investment in Cambridge will support 1,000 jobs at a facility alongside its £1.1billion global research and development centre that houses 2,300 researchers and scientists.

It is also opening a manufacturing site for one of its cancer medicines in Macclesfield this year following the announcement of a £380million investment in 2021. Soriot, 64, has been credited with turning the London-listed drug maker’s fortunes around.

Since he took the reins in 2012, the company’s shares have more than tripled.

And he oversaw the development of the firm’s Covid vaccine that allowed lockdowns during the pandemic to be lifted.

The company more than doubled its annual profits last year thanks to bumper sales of its cancer treatments.

Profits hit £5.5billion in 2023, up from £1.9billion the year before, as sales rose 3 per cent to £36.3billion.

The group said that its revenue and earnings this year would be lifted by its blockbuster oncology medicines.

And this bumper performance has been personally lucrative for Soriot, who scooped up his biggest pay deal last year, earning £16.9million – the fifth year in a row that he has taken home more than £15million.

This took his total earnings to £135million during his 12-year tenure.

This post first appeared on Dailymail.co.uk