Inside The Cell Therapeutics Plant Kicking Off AstraZeneca's $3.5B U.S. Push

The life sciences sector is facing headwinds around the country and particularly in Montgomery County, Maryland, an industry hub anchored by federal health agencies that are now seeing their funding slashed.

But private sector companies like AstraZeneca are pushing forward with major investments in life sciences research and manufacturing. The Cambridge, U.K.-based pharmaceutical giant on Monday celebrated the opening of a $300M project in Montgomery County that is part of its $3.5B investment planned in the U.S. 

It announced that national investment push in November and maintained its commitment Monday. AstraZeneca Vice President of U.S. Corporate and Government Affairs Dan Wygal said the opening of the 9950 Medical Center Drive facility reflects the company’s “commitment to continued investment and innovation here in the United States.”

Alexandria Real Estate Equities developed the 85K SF Rockville biomanufacturing facility in 2019 for Autolus Therapeutics. That deal fell through, as did its next lease with TCR2 Therapeutics. But then AstraZeneca took over TCR2’s lease early last year and announced plans to invest $300M to build out the facility. 

Elected officials, university leaders and scientists gathered at the new facility Monday to cut the ribbon on a location that is set to bring in 150 employees and manufacture a cutting-edge cancer treatment: CAR T-cell therapy.

After just over a year of development, led by contractor CRB, the facility is nearly ready to go. AstraZeneca plans to begin manufacturing cell therapeutics for cancer research in early 2026, though it still needs to install the finishing touches, including the cryogenic freezers that will take its outputs down to negative 150 degrees Celsius. 

AstraZeneca’s seven cell therapeutics are still under development and must be approved by the Food and Drug Administration. The facility will start out by manufacturing therapies for clinical trials, followed by products for patient care once they have cleared the FDA. 

“We understand the importance of doing what we do, because lives and health are at stake now,” AstraZeneca Chief Sustainability Officer Pam Cheng said at the ribbon-cutting. “We choose to do this in the state of Maryland because we believe in its incredible talent, its scientific leadership and its spirit for cooperation.”

Maryland is one of the largest life sciences markets in the country, but the strength of the market has come under threat over the past few months. 

One of the area’s major advantages comes from its federal presence, home to agencies like the National Institutes of Health and the FDA. But the funding allocated to those agencies has come into question under the Trump administration.

Since Jan. 20, more than 17% of the FDA workforce and 11% of NIH workforce have been terminated, according to CNN's tracker.

The administration’s budget proposal released Friday calls for slashing NIH funding by $18B, leaving it with $27B annually. Life sciences funding to local universities like Johns Hopkins University and the University of Maryland is also under threat as the administration moves to cut billions of federal research dollars.

“These assets we have include numerous federal laboratories, from NIH to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, FDA, as well as Department of Defense installations and laboratories,” Maryland Commerce Secretary Harry Coker Jr. said. “Regardless of the assault that they're under from Washington, we will partner, and we will continue to thrive.” 

AstraZeneca’s Cheng told Bisnow that the federal funding cuts haven't had “any significant, meaningful impact” on its operations yet.

“In times ahead, there might be some challenges, but we look forward to partnering with our stakeholders, with the policymakers, with the agencies to ensure science doesn't stop,” Cheng said.

AstraZeneca reported $13.6B in first-quarter revenue, up 10% from the same quarter last year. The company employs more than 94,000 people worldwide, including 18,400 U.S. employees across 12 states and D.C.

AstraZeneca’s $3.5B investment in the U.S. is poised to add 1,000 highly skilled jobs to the country. In addition to the Rockville campus, that investment will go toward a research and development center in the Boston area’s Kendall Square, a next-generation biologics manufacturing facility in Maryland, specialty manufacturing in Texas, and cell therapy manufacturing capacity on the East and West coasts. 

The company plans to spend the funds by the end of 2026. 

The Rockville facility is an expansion of AstraZeneca’s presence in Montgomery County, where it already has 4,500 employees across multiple R&D facilities, including a 1.3M SF research and development campus in Gaithersburg. At the end of 2023, it leased a 198K SF warehouse facility in Gaithersburg, which it plans to use for incoming and outgoing shipments for the operations at 9950 Medical Center.

At the ribbon-cutting, AstraZeneca officials focused on the talent coming out of the area’s universities and the state’s commitment to life sciences as one of its priority industries. 

“This life sciences ecosystem in Maryland serves as a great environment for recruiting new and experienced talent into our organization,” Wygal said.

Life sciences is one of the “lighthouse” industries — along with sectors like information technology, aerospace and defense — that Maryland Gov. Wes Moore identified in an executive order at the end of last year as targets for investment. 

“These lighthouse sectors serve to guide us, to keep us on course,” Maryland Commerce Department's Coker said. “And you all are leading one of our lighthouse sectors, and we are appreciative.”