- In January, AstraZeneca scrapped £450m vaccine plant investment
AstraZeneca has put a £200million investment in Cambridge on hold as international drugs companies snub Keir Starmer’s Britain.
Hours after official figures showed output from the pharmaceuticals industry in the UK fell 4.5 per cent in July, Britain’s biggest firm said the project at its research site has been ‘paused’.
The project was set to create 1,000 jobs and the decision means none of AstraZeneca’s planned funding – originally announced in March 2024, before the election – is going ahead.
In January, the company scrapped plans to invest £450million in its vaccine manufacturing plant in Merseyside after Labour cut support.
The news is a blow to Starmer’s government and its efforts to draw investment into the UK’s stagnant economy – and comes days before Donald Trump arrives in Britain for his State Visit.
An AstraZeneca spokesman said: ‘We constantly reassess the investment needs of our company and can confirm our expansion in Cambridge is paused.’
On hold: The project was set to create 1,000 jobs and the decision means none of AstraZeneca’s planned funding before the election is going ahead
The move came days after US drugs giant Merck – known as MSD in Europe – abandoned plans to build a £1billion research centre in London.
The decision coincided with a report from the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) warning Britain risked becoming ‘uninvestable’.
Richard Torbett, chief executive of the ABPI, said yesterday’s figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showing output in the industry falling were yet more cause for concern as firms ‘look hard at their UK investments’.
‘There are many warning lights flashing red for the UK’s life sciences sector, and this is another we will need to watch closely,’ he told the Daily Mail.
Among the major concerns is an NHS rebate scheme that forces drugs firms to repay 23.5 per cent of the money they make selling drugs to the Health Service back to the Government.
This compares with 7 per cent in Germany and less than 6 per cent in France – making the UK a less attractive place for pharma companies to invest.
Rippon Ubhi, of French drugs giant Sanofi, said: ‘The UK is increasingly being viewed as uninvestable in global boardrooms due to unprecedented clawback rates and restrictive patient access to medicines.
‘While other countries are actively investing in innovative medicines for patients, the UK is falling behind.’
DIY INVESTING PLATFORMS
AJ Bell
AJ Bell
Easy investing and ready-made portfolios
Hargreaves Lansdown
Hargreaves Lansdown
Free fund dealing and investment ideas
interactive investor
interactive investor
Flat-fee investing from £4.99 per month
InvestEngine
InvestEngine
Account and trading fee-free ETF investing
Trading 212
Trading 212
Free share dealing and no account fee
Affiliate links: If you take out a product This is Money may earn a commission. These deals are chosen by our editorial team, as we think they are worth highlighting. This does not affect our editorial independence.
