It should not be termed as an overstatement when we say that Maryland is fast becoming the home away from home when it comes to AstraZeneca, the British drugmaker. On November 21, the biopharma powerhouse pushed it up a notch higher in the Old Line State, confirming that it is going to invest $2 billion in order to raise its manufacturing presence over there.
As biopharma giant announces $2bn Investment, it will almost double the production capacity across its flagship biologics plant based at Frederick, Maryland, and also offer the manufacturing of the rare disease products of the company there for the very first time, said AZ.
Besides this, the company is also going to establish a clinical manufacturing site based in Maryland’s Gaithersburg. The facility, which had been acquired in a $60 million lease transfer in October 2025, is the former headquarters of Novavax, the vaccine specialist, and is also going to host the production of molecules for the medical trials, added AZ.
The outlay is going to create anywhere around 200 additional jobs at the Frederick site along with 100 more at the new Gaithersburg facility, which is just 25 miles away to the southeast.
As biopharma giant announces $2bn investment, it is well to be noted that the company already has quite a prominent presence within the state, as it employs 4,000 people at its R&D campus based out of Gaithersburg. In May 2025, the company also went on to open a $300 million cell therapy manufacturing facility in Rockville, which is nearby and which also employs at least 150 workers.
Apparently, at the May ribbon cutting, Aruna Miller, the Maryland lieutenant governor, said that no life sciences company goes on to employ more people in the state than AZ.
Pascal Soriot, the AZ CEO, jokingly said that he hoped people would accept him as an honorary Marylander in a press conference that took place at the Frederick site. He added that he spends the biggest part of his time at Gaithersburg and also has to admit the fact that he has an apartment in Arlington, Virginia, and hence he wants to share his love.
It is worth noting that Soriot has been spending a good amount of time of late in the Washington, D.C., area. In July 2025, at one of the press events in Washington, D.C., he went on to announce AZ’s plan to invest $50 billion in the U.S.
Thereafter, in October 2025, Soriot joined U.S. President Donald Trump in an Oval Office ceremony officially announcing the agreement by the company to sell drugs to the Medicaid patients at the most-favored nation pricing, which goes on to match the lowest price that is offered in other developed nations.
Notably, in October 2025, just two hours to the southwest, Soriot laid out a plan by AZ to build a $4.5 billion active pharmaceutical ingredients – API plant near Virginia’s Charlottesville that is going to employ 600 people.
At an event on November 21, 2025, Wes Moore, the Maryland governor, proclaimed the intention of the state to be the national leader when it comes to the life science industry.
Pledge by AZ is the largest private investment in Maryland in over a decade, said Moore, adding that the state is going to chip in a 10% investment match.
The investments by AZ have apparently come in response to the threatening by Trump to tax drugs that are imported into the U.S. Interestingly, there is much that still remains uncertain about the potential tariffs’ effect, although in October 2025 Trump had said that a 100% tax is going to be added to the imported pharmaceuticals, with exemptions for certain companies that are going to be building manufacturing facilities across the U.S.
In addition to AZ, other companies that have revealed quite prominent investment plans in the U.S. in the months that have recently gone by include the likes of Merck, which has confirmed that it is going to spend $70bn in the US; Roche, which has pledged to spend $50 billion; and Johnson & Johnson, which has gone on to unveil a $55 billion plan.
