AstraZeneca investing USD800 mn to go local in China

 16-Dec-15, CNBC

AstraZeneca aims to build up its already strong position in China by making and developing more medicines locally, and will invest more than $800 million in the country over the next 10 years, it said on Wednesday.

Image: China Daily

The British drugmaker's decision to step up investment in China, notably through a strategic alliance with local firm WuXi AppTec, chimes with Beijing's desire to see more treatments made in China.

The upside for AstraZeneca should be that locally produced medicines win faster approval from the China Food and Drug Administration, rather than being delayed for years as often happens with imported products.

WuXi AppTec will be producing new biotech medicines locally in China, with AstraZeneca having the option to acquire WuXi's manufacturing capacity through an overall investment of $100 million. AstraZeneca is also spending $50 million on developing traditional "small molecule" drugs in China.

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