Dive Brief:
- AstraZeneca is investing $285 million investment to create a biotech manufacturing facility in Sweden.
- The new plant will be focused on filling and packaging of protein therapeutics.
- The new facility, which will be located in Södertälje, will supply medicines for clinical trial programs starting at the end of 2018.
Dive Insight:
By 2019, AZ's Swedish biotech plant will be fully operational, allowing the company to focus more on injectables, which currently comprise half of AZ's pipeline. Building out a biotech facility in Södertälje makes sense, given the city is where AZ's small-molecule drugs are manufactured.
AZ's move is part of a larger and continually growing trend—the ascendance and prominence of biotech in the context of the larger pharmaceutical/healthcare sector. In fact, biotech stocks are rising faster than any other sector of the market. Last year, there were 71 biotech IPOs, compared with 47 in 2013—and there is a good chance that 2015 will be another record-breaking year.