British pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca has pledged a $15 billion investment in China by 2030, aiming to expand its medicines manufacturing and research and development capabilities.
The announcement, made on Thursday during Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s visit to Beijing, marks the largest deal of his trip as Britain seeks to strengthen ties with China amid strained relations with Washington.
Prime Minister Starmer welcomed the investment, stating: “AstraZeneca’s expansion and leadership in China will help the British manufacturer continue to grow – supporting thousands of UK jobs.”
This significant commitment to China, the company’s second-biggest market, comes despite recent scandals, including the arrest of its China president in 2024. It also follows a substantial $50 billion manufacturing deal in the United States last year, highlighting AstraZeneca’s global strategic focus.
Biggest investment in China yet
AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot said it was the company’s largest investment in China, where it has operated for more than 30 years and is the biggest foreign drugmaker. China accounts for about 12% of its revenue. AstraZeneca has invested billions of dollars in the country during Soriot’s tenure as CEO since 2012, including $2.5 billion in a Beijing research and development hub in March last year, its second after a Shanghai site opened in 2024.
The centres work with more than 500 hospitals across China and have helped run global clinical trials.
The drugmaker said the new deal would bolster its capabilities in new therapeutic approaches like cell therapy and radioconjugates, where it said China was a recognised leader.
Building on its 2024 acquisition of Gracell Biotechnologies, AstraZeneca said it would become the first global biopharmaceutical company with end-to-end cell therapy capabilities in China.
The investment would also help develop treatments for cancer, blood disorders and autoimmune diseases, the company said, and expand manufacturing sites in Wuxi, Taizhou, Qingdao and Beijing, which it said supply medicines in China and to 70 markets worldwide.
It will lift its China workforce to more than 20,000.
Astrazeneca partners China’s booming biotech industry
China’s growing role as a source of new drug assets has become a focus for the industry, executives said at the JPMorgan Healthcare conference earlier this month.
AstraZeneca has signed more than a dozen deals with Chinese biotech firms developing early-stage experimental drug candidates, including partnerships with AbelZeta, CSPC, Harbour BioMed, Jacobio and Syneron Bio.
AstraZeneca’s Chief Financial Officer Aradhana Sarin said in November that growth in China has been “strong throughout the year”.
Some rival drugmakers have sold off Chinese assets following supply chain disruptions, economic slowdown, and strong competition in the country’s centralised drug procurement programme.
