Don’t Speke! AstraZeneca turns back on £450m UK vaccine plantDon’t Speke! AstraZeneca turns back on £450m UK vaccine plant

In January 2024, it was reported that Anglo-Swedish pharma giant AstraZeneca asked the UK Government for as much as £100 million ($123 million) in financial support, resulting in plans announced in March to invest £450 million into a new vaccine manufacturing facility at its Speke campus.

At the time, then UK chancellor Jeremy Hunt said the UK Government delivered “one of the most competitive tax regimes of any major economy” to encourage the investment. But ten months on – and with a change of administration from Conservative to Labour – AstraZeneca has pulled out of the expansion.

The Financial Times wrote this weekend that the U-turn is due to several factors “including the timing and reduction of the final offer compared to the previous government's proposal.” A Guardian article further cited sources that current chancellor Rachel Reeves offered AstraZeneca significantly less than Hunt, and while the opening gambit of £40 million has been improved on, it still sits below the rumored £90 million agreed last year.

AstraZeneca has been contacted for comment and clarification though has not responded at the time of publication.

AstraZeneca acquired the Liverpool site, located about 340 km northwest of London, in 2007 through its MedImmune purchase. (The MedImmune brand was dissolved in 2019.)

The site employs about 400 staff and produces up to 20 million doses of FluMist/Fluenz Tetra vaccines annually. The site is AstraZeneca's second-largest biologics campus globally, and features manufacturing capabilities along with a center for testing and certifying medicines.

This news is not the first policy-related blow to affect the Speke site. A rise in the UK’s tax rate from 19% to 25% in 2023 was slammed by CEO Pascal Soriot with the “discouraging” rate attributed to AstraZeneca’s decision to abandon plans for a $360 million plant on the campus. In the fallout, corporate-friendly Ireland won various investments from AstraZeneca instead.