British pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca has pledged $15 billion in investment in China by 2030, aiming to expand its drug manufacturing and research and development capabilities.
The announcement, made on Thursday during Prime Minister Keir Starmer's visit to Beijing, marks the most significant deal of his trip as Britain seeks to strengthen ties with China amid tensions with Washington.
Prime Minister Starmer welcomed the investment, saying: “AstraZeneca’s expansion and leadership in China will help the British manufacturer continue to grow, supporting thousands of UK jobs.”
This major commitment to China, the company's second-largest market, comes despite recent scandals, including the arrest of its Chinese president in 2024. It also follows a major $50 billion manufacturing deal in the United States last year, highlighting AstraZeneca's global strategic focus.
The largest investment in China so far
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 largest foreign drugmaker. China accounts for about 12% of its revenue. AstraZeneca has invested billions of dollars in the country during Soriot's tenure as chief executive since 2012, including $2.5 billion in a research and development center in Beijing in March last year, the second after opening a site in Shanghai in 2024.
The centers work with more than 500 hospitals across China and have helped conduct global clinical trials.
The drugmaker said the new deal would bolster its capabilities in new therapeutic approaches such as cell therapy and radioconjugates, where it said China was a recognized leader.
Building on its acquisition of Gracell Biotechnologies in 2024, 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 drugs in China and to 70 markets around the world.
It will boost its workforce in China to more than 20,000.
Astrazeneca partners with China's booming biotech industry
China's growing role as a source of new pharmaceutical 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 companies developing early-stage experimental drug candidates, including partnerships with AbelZeta, CSPC, Harbor BioMed, Jacobio and Syneron Bio.
AstraZeneca Chief Financial Officer Aradhana Sarin said in November that growth in China has been “strong all year.”
Some rival drugmakers have sold Chinese assets following supply chain disruptions, an economic slowdown and stiff competition in the country's centralized drug procurement program.
