AstraZeneca has pledged approximately $827 million to increase its presence in the U.K., including a new R&D facility in Liverpool and the expansion of its vaccine manufacturing capabilities, BioSpace reports.

New Facility in Liverpool

Approximately $573 million of AstraZeneca’s commitment will be used to construct a new facility for the research, development and manufacture of vaccines in Speke, Liverpool. The new campus, which will be designed to be operationally net zero and draw power from renewable sources, is designed to help AstraZeneca produce shots for its global child vaccination program.

Boosting Vaccine Manufacturing Capabilities

As part of its partnership with the U.K. government, AstraZeneca will also partner with the Health Security Agency to boost the country’s resilience against future pandemics. The alliance will leverage innovations at AstraZeneca’s Speke site and the agency’s Vaccine Development Evaluation Center.
 
The remaining $254 million will go toward a separate site at the life sciences cluster in Cambridge. The facility, co-located with AstraZeneca’s R&D Discovery Center, will house 1,000 employees.
 
Wednesday’s announcement also revealed that AstraZeneca will inaugurate a new manufacturing plant in Macclesfield for one of its cancer therapies. In 2021, the pharma company invested around $484 million to construct this facility, which is set to open later this year.
  
This news comes weeks after AstraZeneca invested $300 million in a facility in Rockville, MD to launch its life-saving cell therapy platforms in the U.S. for critical cancer trials and future commercial supply.