AstraZeneca Launches $50B U.S. CRE Expansion With Virginia GLP-1 Manufacturing Facility

Another pharmaceutical giant is planning to spend billions on its U.S. footprint amid the Trump administration’s domestic manufacturing push.

AstraZeneca intends to spend $50B on expansion across the nation by 2030, according to a Monday press release.

A large share of that will go to a Virginia manufacturing facility focused on the company’s weight-loss drugs, including the GLP-1 pills. 

The upcoming factory will be AstraZeneca’s largest investment in a single manufacturing property and will be a high-tech facility with artificial intelligence, automation and data analytics, the release says.

AstraZeneca will also build or expand research and development facilities outside Washington, D.C., and Baltimore and manufacturing facilities in Texas, Indiana and California.

This is in addition to the company’s pledge to invest $3.5B in its U.S. footprint, made days after President Donald Trump was elected in November. The first wave of that expansion, an 85K SF manufacturing facility in Montgomery County, Maryland, opened in May.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick praised the announcement.

“For decades Americans have been reliant on foreign supply of key pharmaceutical products,” he said in a statement. “This historic investment is bringing tens of thousands of jobs to the US and will ensure medicine sold in our country is produced right here.”

Other Big Pharma companies announced similar investments in recent months. In the first five months of 2025, firms including Roche, Eli Lilly and Johnson & Johnson committed to investing nearly $160B across the U.S.

Trump is considering tariffs that could have a massive impact on the pharmaceutical industry. Earlier this month, he suggested that there could be a levy of up to 200% on imported drugs following a 12-to-18-month grace period to allow for onshoring, CNBC reported.

The president also signed a May executive order seeking to lower the cost of certain drugs by tethering them to the price patients pay abroad.