AstraZeneca pauses £200m Cambridge expansion as UK pharma output falls
Planned project that would have created about 1,000 jobs is on hold amid industry withdrawals and warnings that Britain is becoming less attractive to drug companies
AstraZeneca has paused a planned £200 million expansion at its Cambridge research site, the company said on Friday, putting on hold a project that was expected to create about 1,000 jobs and suspending previously announced funding.
The decision comes as official data showed output from the UK pharmaceuticals industry fell 4.5% in July, and follows a series of high-profile investment reversals by multinational drugmakers.
An AstraZeneca spokesman said the company "constantly reassess[es] the investment needs of our company and can confirm our expansion in Cambridge is paused." The firm did not give a timetable for restarting the project and said the pause meant none of the planned pre-election funding would proceed for now.
The Cambridge announcement echoes earlier decisions by AstraZeneca and other global pharmaceutical groups. In January, AstraZeneca cancelled plans for a separate £450 million investment in a vaccine manufacturing plant in Merseyside after government support was reduced. Days before the Cambridge pause, US drugmaker Merck, known as MSD in Europe, abandoned plans for a roughly £1 billion research centre in London.
Industry bodies warned the decisions signal growing caution among investors. Richard Torbett, chief executive of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry, said the ONS figures were "yet more cause for concern as firms look hard at their UK investments." He added: "There are many warning lights flashing red for the UK's life sciences sector, and this is another we will need to watch closely."
Executives point to the scale of the UK’s NHS rebate scheme as a deterrent. Under the current arrangement, drugmakers must return about 23.5% of sales to the Health Service, a level company representatives and industry groups say is higher than competitor markets. The rebate compares with roughly 7% in Germany and less than 6% in France, according to industry commentary.
Rippon Ubhi, of French drugmaker Sanofi, said the combination of high rebate rates and restricted patient access to medicines meant "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."
The sequence of investment cancellations and pauses poses a challenge for Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government, which has sought to attract inward investment to support jobs and growth. The pause was announced days before a high-profile state visit to the UK by former US President Donald Trump.
AstraZeneca’s latest decision adds to a string of moves that industry participants say will be watched closely for signs of whether the UK can remain competitive in the global life sciences market. The company and government have not provided further details on whether the paused funding might be redeployed to other projects or locations, or what conditions would prompt a restart of the Cambridge expansion.