Astrazeneca On Friday, it was said that it would invest 2.5 billion US dollars in a research and development center in Chinese capital Capital Beijing, months after the British pharmaceutical was faced with its import duties before examining the local supervisory authorities.
The new hub is expected to bring AstraZenecas Beijing workforce to around 1,700 employees.
The investment in Beijing is made as part of a partnership with the city government of the city and the administrative office of the economy technological development area in Beijing, said Astrazeneca.
As part of the deal, AstraZeneca will take research and development cooperation with Biotech companies that introduce Biomed and Syneron Bio Harbor Bio Harbor's Harbor and Syneron Bio and launch a joint venture with biokangtai to develop, produce and market vaccines for respiratory tract and other infectious diseases.
In the partnership with Biokangtai, the company will open its first vaccine production in China.
The Beijing Research Center in AstraZeneca will be the second of its kind in China, since the company already has a research and development center in Shanghai. The Beijing Center “will work with modern biology and AI science in Beijing and be a critical part of our global efforts to bring innovative medication worldwide to innovative medication,” said CEO Pascal Soriot in a statement.
The AstraZeneca stocks had dropped by around 0.9% at 12:28 p.m. in London.
Soriot in conversation with Julianna Tatelbaum from CNBC said China was a “fundamental part of the innovation in the future”, but emphasized the persistent dedication of his company to the US footprint.
“We are very committed to the United States, we have two very large research and development centers in the USA,” he said.
European companies are under pressure to take measures to protect themselves from Donald Trump's second administration from the tariffs of the White House, who tries to reduce the US trade deficits with commercial partners and to promote international production states.
Chinese probe
Last month, Astrazeneca said that it could be exposed to up to 4.5 million US dollars in terms of 900,000 million US dollars of unpaid import duties.
The company said that in China in February, investigations into these allegations in China were carried out throughout the year in the year in February.
“After the best knowledge of AstraZeneca, the import taxes mentioned in the evaluation of the evaluation [cancer medications] IMFINZI and IMJUDO, “said the company at the time.” A fine between one and five times as high as unpaid import taxes can be levied if Astrazeneca is liable. Astrazeneca continues to work fully with the Chinese authorities.
In an interview on Friday with CNBC, Soriot said that the investment of his company in China was “not at all associated with ongoing studies on business activities.
“We have been committed to investing in China for a long time. In recent years we have invested 10 billion US dollars in more than 10 F&E partnerships with local biotech companies,” he said.
“Companies like ours, the size of our company, means that from time to time we are confronted against headwear and challenges and topics, and of course we regret that we have gone through a challenging time like this, but it is not related to our investments in Beijing, the two are completely separated.
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