Astrazeneca On Friday he said that he will invest $ 2.5 billion in a research and development center in the Chinese capital Beijing, months after the British pharmaceutical giant faced the scrutiny of local regulators over their import tariffs.
The new center is expected to carry Beijing’s workforce in Astrazeneca to around 1,700 employees.
The investment in Beijing is produced as part of an association with the municipal government of the city and the administrative office of the Economic Development Area of ​​Economic Development of Beijing, said Astrazeneca.
According to the agreement, Astrazeneca will enter the research and development collaborations with the biotechnology companies that house Biomed and Syneron Bio and will launch a joint company with Biokangtai to develop, produce and market vaccines for respiratory diseases and other infectious diseases.
The association with Biokangtai will make the company open its first vaccine manufacturing installation in China.
The Beijing Research Center of Astrazeneca will be the second of its kind in China, since the company already has a research and development center in Shanghai. The Beijing Center “will be associated with the Biology of Vanguardia and the science of AI in Beijing and will be a critical part of our global efforts to bring innovative medicines to patients worldwide,” said CEO Pascal Soriot in a statement.
Astrazeneca’s actions fell around 0.9% at 12:28 am in London.
Speaking to Julianna Tatelbaum of CNBC on Friday, Soriot said that China was a “fundamental part of innovation in the future”, but emphasized the continuous devotion of his company to his American footprint.
“We are very committed to the United States, we have two very large research and development centers in the United States,” he said.
European companies are under pressure to take measures to protect themselves from the White House rates under the second administration of Donald Trump, who seeks to reduce commercial deficits of the United States with commercial partners and promote international production in the United States.
Chinese survey
Last month, Astrazeneca said he could face a fine of Chinese authorities of up to $ 4.5 million, in relation to $ 900,000 million unpaid import tariffs.
The company said the investigations on these accusations were ongoing in China in its profit report throughout the year in February.
“Maybe Astrazeneca, the import taxes mentioned in the evaluation opinion are related to [cancer medications] Imfinzi and imjudo, “said the company at that time.” A fine of between one and five times the amount of unpaid import taxes can also be applied if Astrazeneca is responsible. Astrazeneca continues to cooperate completely with Chinese authorities.
In a Friday interview with CNBC, Soriot said that his company’s investment in China “was not connected at all” with the ongoing investigations about commercial activities there.
“We have promised to invest in China for a long time. In recent years, we have invested $ 10 billion in more than 10 R&D associations with local biotechnology companies,” he said.
“Companies like ours, the size of our company, means that we will face winds against occasion, and challenges and problems, and of course, we regret having had to go through a challenging period like this, but it is not related at all to our investment in Beijing, the two are totally separated. This project began much before the recent challenges we are facing.”
