AstraZeneca invests $135M in Swedish plant

AstraZeneca has announced it will invest millions in one of its state-of-the-art facilities that focuses on packing protein therapeutics. | DBT FILE PHOTO BY JACOB OWENS

WILMINGTON — AstraZeneca has announced it will invest $135 million in existing manufacturing operations in Sweden, boosting its floorspace by half.

The pharmaceutical giant announced on Aug. 26 it would add a 2,700 meter expansion of its facility in Södertälje, Sweden, where it develops filling and packing protein therapeutics. As part of the investment, AstraZeneca plans to add new equipment for filling biological drugs into prefilled syringes.

AstraZeneca plans to manufacture its therapies out of the expanded facility by the fourth quarter of 2027. There will also be additional staff hired, although company reports were not clear on how many jobs will be added to the site.

“We are happy about this investment in Södertälje, which demonstrates AstraZeneca’s commitment to innovation and manufacturing of biological medicines in Sweden,” AstraZeneca Senior Vice President for Global Biologics Operations Per Alfredsson said in a prepared statement.

AstraZeneca can trace its roots to Södertälje, as one of its parent companies, Astra AB, was established in 1913 by 400 doctors. In 1999, Astra AB merged with the pharmaceutical spin-off of ICI, a British chemicals company. AstraZeneca then shortly moved to Delaware in a sprawling campus to bring an estimated 1,500 employees to its Fairfax campus.

While the company has downsized its Delaware headquarters, it maintains operations and biopharmaceutical manufacturing operations in the First State while adding manufacturing plants in 100 countries.

In 2021, AstraZeneca invested $300 million in the Södertälje facility. It was designed to bet big on biologics, a class of drugs that is created through a living system, like plant cells or micro-organisms. The pharmaceutical company planned to equip the Swedish manufacturing facility with advanced technologies the company had not used before.

 In AstraZeneca’s current research portfolio, more than 50% of the projects are biological drugs.

“The planned expansion will strengthen our ability to deliver high-quality, life-changing medicines to patients worldwide. It is also an expression of the confidence we have in the competence and potential that exists in the region,” Alfredsson added.