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AstraZeneca spends more than twice as much as expected on new HQ

pharmafile | June 12, 2019 | News story | Business Services, Manufacturing and Production, Medical Communications, Research and Development, Sales and Marketing |  AstraZeneca, Cambridge, UK, headquarters, pascal soriot, pharma 

AstraZeneca’s new headquarters in Cambridge, United Kingdom are expected to cost more than double the sum of £330 million that the firm budgeted for in 2013.

At a cost of £750 million so far, AstraZeneca’s new donut-shaped HQ is set to become one of the most expensive corporate buildings in the UK.  

According to AstraZeneca, the construction costs associated with the building of the 580,000 metres square headquarters on a biomedical campus south of Cambridge have soared due to “increased investment in new technologies and equipment.”

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While AstraZeneca had originally hoped to move in by 2016, the Anglo-Swedish multinational now hopes to make its move into its new headquarters next year.

The building of the new HQ comes after AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot decided to move the company away from London after he took over the firm in 2012.

AstraZeneca’s big investment in its new Cambridge headquarters has been seen as evidence of the firm’s commitment to both Britain and Cambridge as biopharmaceutical hubs.

AstraZeneca’s new building will come in shortly behind Bloomberg’s £1 billion Foster + Partners-designed HQ in London as one of the most expensive corporate buildings in Britain.

For comparison, GlaxoSmithKline’s Brentford HQ cost the UK firm £350 million in 2002, while the Royal Bank of Scotland’s Edinburgh head office cost £350 million in 2005.

Louis Goss

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