AstraZeneca reportedly wants UK Gov aid to expand vaccine plant

Both The Times and Financial Times reported the story, claiming Anglo-Swedish pharma giant AstraZeneca has asked for as much as £100 million from the UK Government to expand the plant, citing unnamed officials.

AstraZeneca added the facility in Liverpool, UK through its acquisition of MedImmune in 2007. The company dissolved the MedImmune brand back in 2019.

The site produces up to 20 million doses of AstraZeneca’s influenza vaccines FluMist/Fluenz Tetra. It employs around 400 staff and according to the firm is the second largest biologics campus within its global network, boasting a center of excellence for testing and certification of medicines beyond its manufacturing capabilities.

Though the site has benefited from £75 million of investment over recent years, AstraZeneca’s CEO Pascal Soriot has been a critic of the UK government and the country’s corporate tax rate of 25%.

In February 2023, the “discouraging” tax rate in the UK led to the firm shelving plans to build a $360 million manufacturing plant in the north-west of England, the Guardian reported, with corporate-friendly Ireland instead winning various investments from AstraZeneca instead.

AstraZeneca refused to comment on this story when contacted by BioProcess Insider.