Firm reverses decision last year to halt spending because of concerns over drug pricing
Hopes are growing that AstraZeneca will begin procurement on the next phase of its headquarters campus in Cambridge after the drugmaker said it would invest £300m in the UK reversing a previous decision taken last year.
The scheme was given the green light earlier this month by the city council and will involve building an office and conference centre.
The six-storey block will provide nearly 12,000sq m of floorspace including offices for more than 700 staff, a 200-person conference centre and a 450-seat auditorium.
When the job will get going is up in the air and asked if it was bidding the job, one contractor recently admitted: “We would like to. The biggest challenge is AstraZeneca committing to spend whilst they are disputing drug pricing.”
AstraZeneca had pulled back projects in the UK last year, questioning the business environment, including the availability of new medicines on the NHS and drug pricing.
But yesterday the country’s biggest drugmaker said it will invest £300m in the UK at two existing sites at Cambridge and Macclesfield.
It will complete the construction of the Rosalind Franklin building on its Cambridge campus, being built by Mace, where it has its headquarters. It will also build a “lab of the future” that will use digital and data tools to advance drug development at its Macclesfield site.
The office and conference centre has been designed by Jestico + Whiles while the project team also includes Ramboll on civils and structures, MEP and transport, Bidwells on planning, MFS on facades and the Fire Surgery on fire.
AstraZeneca’s Herzog & de Meuron-designed headquarters was finished by Mace, having taken over from Skanska as construction manager on the job, following design changes and cost increases. Initially expected to cost £300m and finish in 2017, it was completed in 2021 at a cost of more than £1bn.
AstraZeneca has been contacted for comment.
Last autumn, another drugmaker, Merck, said it was pulling out of taking up space at a life sciences building Mace is building in London opposite King’s Cross station.
The decision meant a £110m fit out contract at the job, known as Belgrove House, that Sisk was due to carry out was pulled although Mace is continuing with the shell and core that is due to complete later this spring. Belgrove House developer Precis said this week that it had instructed agents to find alternative occupiers.
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