After the Trump administration announced a "tariff" on pharmaceuticals, global major pharmaceutical companies have been unveiling large-scale investment plans in the United States.
British multinational pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca announced on the 21st (local time) that it would invest $50 billion (about 69 trillion won) in the United States by 2030.
This investment is an attempt to expand manufacturing and research capabilities in the United States. AstraZeneca will release the largest investment amount since its establishment to build a new drug manufacturing facility in Virginia. Subsequently, it plans to expand research and development (R&D) and cell therapy production in five states, including Maryland and Massachusetts.
The company noted, "This investment is expected to create tens of thousands of new jobs."
This investment is a response to pressure from President Trump, who has demanded that pharmaceuticals sold in the United States be produced more domestically. Earlier this month, President Trump announced a high "tariff" on foreign pharmaceuticals.
In recent months, not only AstraZeneca but also other major pharmaceutical companies, including Switzerland's Roche, the United States' Eli Lilly, and Johnson & Johnson, have announced investment plans amounting to tens of billions to hundreds of billions of dollars in the U.S.
U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick stated in a statement, "President Trump and the new tariff policy is a strategy to dismantle the dependent structure that supplies major pharmaceuticals from abroad."
The background for pharmaceutical companies' decision to invest heavily is their intention to maintain market share in the world's largest pharmaceutical market, the United States. The size of the U.S. pharmaceutical market reaches $635 billion (about 880 trillion won) annually. AstraZeneca generated 42% of its total revenue from the U.S. last year.