By Sara Gilgore – Staff Reporter, Washington Business Journal - AstraZeneca PLC (NYSE: AZN) is leaving no doubt about its commitment to Montgomery County, pouring $300 million into a new U.S. manufacturing hub it’s establishing in Rockville just a couple months after taking over another building nearby.
The British pharmaceutical giant said Tuesday the facility at 9950 Medical Center Drive will start out as a space to make T-cell therapies for clinical trials in cancer, and could support other disease areas and commercial work going forward. The company also said it expects to create more than 150 new jobs at the site.
“This new $300 million investment will accelerate our ambition to make next-generation cell therapy a reality, ensuring that we are ready to scale and meet the demands of patients,” Pam Cheng, AstraZeneca’s executive vice president of global operations and IT, and chief sustainability officer, said in a statement.
AstraZeneca stands to get some help funding the project. The Maryland Department of Commerce is “working to approve” a $500,000 conditional loan through its Advantage Maryland program, an AstraZeneca spokesperson told us, citing the governor’s office. In addition, Montgomery County plans to provide a $100,000 conditional grant via its Economic Development Fund Grant & Loan Program. The company is eligible for other incentives including the state’s job creation tax credit and the More Jobs for Marylanders program.
AstraZeneca’s Rockville building sits near Adventist HealthCare Shady Grove Medical Center and multiple local biotech firms including Emergent BioSolutions Inc. (NYSE: EBS). It’s also about three miles down Great Seneca Highway from AstraZeneca’s existing research and development campus, a nine-story facility spanning 1.27 million square feet. That site, one of the company’s five global R&D hubs, employs more than 4,300 people.
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