AstraZeneca ‘very disappointed’ after ditching £450m Liverpool vaccine site
Pascal Soriot, chief executive of AstraZeneca, denied any rift with the Government over the decision.
The boss of drugmaker AstraZeneca has said he was “very disappointed” with the firm’s move to scrap plans for a £450 million vaccine plant in Liverpool, but insisted the business case did not stack up.
Pascal Soriot, chief executive of AstraZeneca, denied any rift with the Government over the decision, which it revealed earlier this week, saying Labour failed to match the previous government’s offer of support.
In a press conference after unveiling annual results, Mr Soriot said: “We couldn’t make the business case work and couldn’t make the investment economically viable.
“We needed the same level of support to make this economically viable.
“It wasn’t possible for the Government to justify it, which we totally understand, and we said we couldn’t justify it either.
“We were all very disappointed, but that’s business life.”
He added there was “no issue, no tension” with the Government, confirming the firm had planned to increase investment in the manufacturing plant in Speke, Merseyside, “to more than £500 million”.
The decision reversed an announcement made by then-chancellor Jeremy Hunt at last year’s March budget, pledging £90 million in grants and aid that would have seen the pharmaceutical company expand its existing facility in Speke.
But government support was cut by Labour after it won the election as it looked to slash spending to help repair public finances.
Mr Soriot said more needs to be done in the UK to boost investment in the pharmaceutical sector.
“It’s clear that the UK needs to continue working on improvements to the investment environment to promote investment and address issues of access,” he said.
The comments came as AstraZeneca warned alongside its annual figures that it could face a fine in China over possible unpaid import taxes.
AstraZeneca said authorities in Shenzhen have said the unpaid taxes amount to 0.9 million dollars (£0.7 million) and that it could face a fine “of between one and five times the amount of unpaid importation taxes” if found liable.
It said the taxes related to its Imfinzi and Imjudo drugs, but could possibly widen to breast cancer drug Enhertu as well.
The firm is continuing to co-operate with Chinese authorities.
AstraZeneca appointed a new president for its China business late last year after previous executive Leon Wang was arrested by Chinese authorities along with other employees.
The Cambridge-based firm revealed that total revenues increased by 18% to 54.1 billion dollars (£43.3 billion) in 2024, compared with the previous year.
It came on the back of a 24% rise in sales of oncology treatments, those used for cancer patients.
Meanwhile, it saw pre-tax profits rise by 26% to a stronger-than-predicted 8.7 billion dollars (£6.97 billion) for the year.
Mr Soriot: “Our company delivered a very strong performance in 2024.
“This year marks the beginning of an unprecedented, catalyst-rich period for our company, an important step on our Ambition 2030 journey to deliver 80 billion dollars (£64.1 billion) total revenue by the end of the decade.
“In 2025 alone, we anticipate the first phase III data for seven new medicines, along with several important new indication opportunities for our existing medicines.”
He also confirmed that tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China being imposed by US President Donald Trump would not affect the company, as it does not import from those countries into America.
