Construction is now underway on a $4.5 billion manufacturing facility for pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca in Albemarle County, which promises to bring some 600 jobs to Central Virginia.
Gov. Glenn Youngkin, Trump administration officials, county leaders and AstraZeneca’s CEO broke ground on the plant Thursday.
“This isn’t just an economic development announcement,” Youngkin said at the ground-breaking. “This is a transformational moment for Albemarle County, for the greater Charlottesville area, for the commonwealth of Virginia and for the nation.”
In addition to the 600 people who will run the plant once it is operational — which is expected by 2030 as part of a promised $50 billion investment United Kingdom-based AstraZeneca is making in the U.S. — construction on the facility will require roughly 3,000 engineers, skilled tradesmen and construction workers.
“One job we create creates another five or six additional jobs in supply chains, in retail and other industries to support the site — so really, an important contribution to the economic development of this county and the state,” AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot said.
Once completed, the plant is expected to produce weight management and metabolic drugs, such as oral glucagon-like peptide-1, better known as GLP-1; baxdrostat; proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9, otherwise known as PCSK9; and small-molecule drugs.
Such drugs have become more popular not only in treating diabetes and hypertension, but also rapid weight loss, as with the brand-name drug Ozempic.
“There’s no question about it that the American experiment is dependent on the American people being healthy,” Dr. Mehmet Oz, the television personality-turned-administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, said at the ground-breaking. “The most important thing I’m seeing is the opportunity for us to safely procure medications that will save lives and reflects this administration’s commitment to both of those realities. We want to be wealthy. We want to be healthy at the same time.”
The future AstraZeneca plant is to be constructed next door to Rivanna Station, a military base just north of Charlottesville that quarters the nation’s three top military intelligence-gathering agencies: the Defense Intelligence Agency, the National Ground Intelligence Center and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency.
The surrounding property, called Rivanna Futures, was acquired by Albemarle County for $58 million back in 2023. The land has since been rezoned, and a $9.7 million grant from the Virginia Business Ready Sites Program has been employed to ready it for a future tenant.
The property is also 10 miles north of the University of Virginia, where work is underway on the future Manning Institute of Biotechnology at UVa’s Fontaine Research Park.
The institute, headed by former AstraZeneca Vice President Mark Esser, is expected to open in 2027.
Virginia officials have been explicit that the Manning Institute has been designed to compete directly with the Research Triangle in North Carolina. The Triangle is a collaboration between North Carolina State University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Duke University. The Research Triangle Park at its center is the largest research park in the U.S. and home to more than 300 companies.
“They have a tremendous capability, and I just want to win,” Youngkin said. “We went to work to make sure that we had an academic and educational pipeline to create a workforce that would really appeal to not just manufacturing, but research and development.”
Biotechnology and pharmaceutical manufacturing are two growing industries in Virginia. Youngkin promised, “Life sciences will be one of Virginia’s top industries for a long time to come.”
“We identified life sciences broadly as a critical strategic sector for America and for business investment. And so we went to work putting together the elements of the ecosystem to be the best,” Youngkin said.
Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly & Co. plans to build a $5 billion manufacturing facility in nearby Goochland County, which will employ roughly 650 people developing medicinal drugs used to treat cancer and autoimmune diseases. Additionally, Youngkin was in Charlottesville last week for a ground-breaking ceremony at Afton Scientific’s new $200 million sterile injectable manufacturing facility, which promises to bring another 200 jobs to the area.
Esser said he looks forward to working closely with all of the new and expanding businesses in Virginia.
“We hope that there’ll be more collaboration with AstraZeneca and with Eli Lilly and others, not only on clinical trials in biomanufacturing, but on early research,” he said in a Thursday statement.
UVa said that the new plant will accelerate research collaborations, bolster the area’s biotechnology industry and increase employment opportunities for UVa graduates while enhancing the region’s growing reputation as a life sciences hub.
“The University of Virginia is honored to welcome AstraZeneca to Charlottesville and Albemarle County, where innovation drives impact,” interim UVa President Paul Mahoney said in the same Thursday statement. “AstraZeneca’s presence will accelerate medical breakthroughs while reinforcing Central Virginia’s role as a national leader in biotechnology innovation.”
The ground-breaking also was lauded by county officials.
“Today’s announcement establishes a highly compatible anchor in biotechnology for the region,” Albemarle Board of Supervisors Chairman Jim Andrews said. “To the residents and the businesses of Albemarle County, let’s all celebrate this win for our community.
Source: www.dailyprogress.com