By Ahmed Aboulenein and Maggie Fick
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -AstraZeneca plans to spend $50 billion to expand manufacturing and research capabilities in the U.S. by 2030, it said on Monday, the latest big investment by a pharmaceutical company reacting to President Donald Trump’s tariff policy.
The investment will fund a new drug manufacturing facility in Virginia and expand research and development (R&D) and cell therapy manufacturing in Maryland, Massachusetts, California, Indiana and Texas, it said in a statement.
It will also upgrade the Anglo-Swedish drugmaker’s U.S. clinical trial supply network and support ongoing investment in novel medicines.
On Monday, AstraZeneca said the expansion supports its ambition to reach $80 billion in annual revenue by 2030, with half coming from the U.S.
The U.S. accounted for more than 40% of AstraZeneca’s annual revenue in 2024, and the company had been prioritising the market – the world’s largest, worth $635 billion – before Trump’s return to office.
The move to scale up its U.S. footprint is the latest by a drugmaker as Trump threatens to impose import tariffs on the industry and seeks to boost domestic manufacturing. The sector has historically been spared from trade disputes.
Trump has called on pharma companies to make more of the medicines they sell in the U.S. within the country, rather than importing active ingredients or finished medicines. He is also pushing for prices in the U.S. to fall to what other countries pay.
CEO Pascal Soriot announced the plans in Washington, saying he believes that drug prices need to rise elsewhere and “equalize” with other countries effectively contributing more to research and development costs. “The United States cannot build or carry the cost of R&D for the entire world,” he said.
U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick’s department is leading a probe into pharmaceutical imports that could pave the way for new tariffs.
“For decades Americans have been reliant on foreign supply of key pharmaceutical products. President Trump and our nation’s new tariff policies are focused on ending this structural weakness,” said Lutnick in a statement issued by AstraZeneca.
While Trump has repeatedly threatened tariffs on the sector, he signalled earlier this month that companies would be given a year to 18 months to “get their act together” before any levies take effect.
The company said that the timing and location of the announcement was linked to the U.S. policy environment, though some of the spending would have occurred regardless so that the infrastructure for future medicines was in place.
