AstraZeneca to boost R&D investments in Spain

The company will increase its workforce by nearly 1,000 new recruits between 2023 and 2025

AstraZeneca has made a decisive commitment to boost its R&D activities in Spain in the coming years. This has been announced by the CEO of the pharmaceutical company, Pascal Soriot, who has travelled to Spain to present his plans personally to the First Vice-President and Minister for Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation, Nadia Calviño.

Presenting its plans for R&D investment in Spain until 2025, Soriot said, “The Spanish R&D ecosystem is world-class and we are committed to working with the Government of Spain to unlock the potential of innovative medicines as an engine for long-term economic growth. We will continue to invest and expand our capacities in environments committed to innovation and development.”

Increased confidence
The British company earmarked 93 million euros in 2021 to finance innovative projects in Spain. Of that amount, 48 million euros was specifically earmarked for R&D initiatives. AstraZeneca's total investment a year later, in all areas, amounted to 400 million euros, a figure which demonstrates AstraZeneca's  increased confidence in Spain.

In terms of employment, the company's workforce in Spain grew by 20% in 2022 to 1,300 employees. Over the next two years, according to the CEO's announcement, the pace of hiring will accelerate to around 1,000 more people.

Clinical trials
AstraZeneca has an extensive R&D pipeline with 179 clinical development programmes, fifteen of which involve developing completely new molecular entities which are already in the most advanced stages of study. In Spain alone, the company conducted almost 300 clinical trials involving over 4,500 patients in 2022.

The President of AstraZeneca Spain, Rick R. Suárez, also participated in the meeting and highlighted that “With the new projects in Spain AstraZeneca is intensifying its dedication to research and innovation, as well as to improving the availability of new medicines.. Globally, the company is committed to strengthening health systems and increasing patients' fair, affordable access to treatment, and we ranked third in the 2020 Access to Medicines Index (AtMI).”

Quality work
According to Nadia Calviño, “AstraZeneca's commitment will create quality jobs and is in line with the announcements of billion-dollar investments by multinationals from all sectors in recent months, and it reflects the strong boost being given to R&D, health and science with the investments from the Recovery Plan, such as those under the Strategic Project for Economic Recovery and Transformation (PERTE) for Cutting-Edge Health”.

The pharmaceutical company's executives stress the importance of public-private collaboration and highlight other recent investments in Spain, such as the new offices and the Innovation Hub in Madrid, to which they have allocated 5.5 million euros.

Photo: Ministry of Economy ©Saioa Hermosa