AstraZeneca has announced plans to invest $2 billion to expand its manufacturing footprint in Maryland. This includes an expansion of its flagship biologics manufacturing facility in Frederick and construction of a new facility in Gaithersburg for the development and clinical supply of innovative molecules. These expansions are the next step in AstraZeneca’s previously announced $50-billion investment in the US in research and development and manufacturing, which was announced in July 2025.  

The Frederick facility currently produces biologics in AstraZeneca’s portfolio of cancer, autoimmune, respiratory and rare disease treatments. The planned expansion will nearly double commercial manufacturing capacity to enable increased supply of existing medicines and production across the company’s rare disease portfolio. The expansion is expected to be operational in 2029. It will create 200 highly skilled jobs and 900 construction roles, according to the company.

Additionally, AstraZeneca will build a new clinical-scale manufacturing facility to expand its footprint in Gaithersburg. The facility, which will be fully operational by 2029, will create an additional 100 jobs, retain 400 roles, and support a further 1,000 construction-related jobs. 

In addition to the expansions in Maryland, the $50-billion investment across the company’s R&D and manufacturing footprint in the US over the next five years also includes:   

• A new R&D center in Kendall Square, Cambridge, Massachusetts;   

• A new active pharmaceutical ingredient manufacturing facility in Charlottesville, Virginia; 

• Manufacturing facilities for cell therapies in Rockville, Maryland, and Tarzana, California;   

• Continuous manufacturing expansion in Mount Vernon, Indiana;    

• A specialty manufacturing expansion in Coppell, Texas;   

• New sites to supply clinical trials; and    

• Growing research and development investment. 

Of the above investments, AstraZeneca has already announced investments in Virginia and Texas. The Charlottesville, Virginia facility, with an investment of $4.5 billion, will produce drug substances for AstraZeneca’s weight-management and metabolic portfolio, including an oral GLP-1, baxdrostat, oral PCSK9 products, and combination small-molecule products. The company is also expanding the scope of products to include the company’s antibody drug conjugate cancer portfolio. 

The Texas facility expansion, with an investment of $445 million, will double the production of Lokelma (sodium zirconium cyclosilicate), a drug for treating hyperkalemia (high levels of potassium in the blood). 

Source: AstraZeneca