Maryland Governor Wes Moore announced that AstraZeneca would invest $300 million to construct a new manufacturing facility in Rockville, a city with roughly 70,000 inhabitants that is about 17 miles from Washington, D.C. The facility will focus on cell therapies for cancer treatment. The 84,000 square-foot facility, slated for completion in 2026, will enable global clinical trials and commercial supply of AstraZeneca’s CAR-T cancer therapies. AstraZeneca estimates the plant to create 150 new high-skilled jobs.

Incentives played a role in new plant

To support AstraZeneca’s new manufacturing facility in Rockville, Maryland, the state and county are providing financial incentives, including a $500,000 conditional loan from the Maryland Department of Commerce’s Advantage Maryland program and a $100,000 conditional grant from Montgomery County’s Economic Development Fund. The facility, located less than 5 miles from AstraZeneca’s R&D hub and in a life sciences corridor near several universities, will become part of the company’s global supply network of nearly 30 manufacturing and supply sites.

In 2022, AstraZeneca sold an Ohio facility to National Resilience.

Maryland a leading life sciences hub

Home to more than 3,400 life sciences businesses, Maryland offers a strong talent pipeline and proximity to federal agencies like the NIH and FDA. The dense concentration of biopharma activity has earned Maryland recognition as noe of the largest life sciences clusters in the U.S. Over 50% of the state’s biotech and pharma companies are located in Montgomery County.

In 2020, Catalent announced a $130 million expansion of its gene therapy manufacturing operation in Maryland to meet market demand.