AstraZeneca restarts $300M investment in UK, but Merck not budging

Summary: AstraZeneca is bringing a $300 million investment back to the U.K. Seven months ago, they stopped their building plans because they were upset about the country's strict drug pricing rules. What changed? The U.K. government made a new deal to pay more for new medicines and lowered the fees drug companies have to pay.

AstraZeneca's CEO praised the changes and said they will now build a new office in Cambridge and a high-tech lab in Macclesfield. However, another massive drug company, Merck, isn't impressed. They previously canceled a huge $1.3 billion research center in London over the same rules and said they still have no plans to bring it back.

Source: Fierce Biotech URL: fiercebiotech.com/biotech/astrazeneca-restarts-300m-investment-england-merck-not-budging (opens in new tab)