Two and a half years after Albemarle County announced the purchase of 462 acres around the Rivanna Station military base, British pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca has announced it will invest $4.5 billion to locate a major operation there.
“This is a transformative moment for Albemarle County,” said Jim Andrews, Board of Supervisors chair, at the October 9 announcement. “Let’s all celebrate this win for Albemarle County.”
“There are going to be 600 spectacular jobs,” said Gov. Glenn Youngkin, one of many luminaries on hand for the event held on the county-owned land.
AstraZeneca announced in July that it would invest $50 billion in North America for a series of factories including a “multi-billion dollar drug substance manufacturing centre focused on chronic diseases.”
“We are standing here today making turning that vision into reality,” said Pam Cheng, AstraZeneca’s executive vice president, global operations, IT and chief sustainability officer.
The investment will take the form of two separate facilities. One will focus on chronic diseases and the other will be for what a press release describes as “antibody-drug conjugates focused on therapies for oncology indications.”
Cheng said the goal is to open the facility by 2029. That is around the same time that officials at the Paul and Diane Manning Institute of Biotechnology hope to begin clinical trials for new medications that come from new research. The first director of the institute, Mark Esser, is a former vice president at AstraZeneca.
“This new facility is going to create a lot of important chemicals,” said Mehmet Oz, the 17th administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, otherwise known as television personality Dr. Oz.
The move is a big step toward satisfying the second goal of Albemarle County’s newly adopted Economic Development Strategic Plan, which is to “grow into the Mid-Atlantic’s premier destination for biotechnology and life sciences innovation.”
The new factory also fits in with the Central Virginia Innovation Corridor Strategic Roadmap, a document created by GO Region 9 to position the area for investment.
Youngkin said the two factories will be AstraZeneca’s largest in the world.
“This company stands for so much more than a manufacturing facility,” the governor said. “They find life-changing medicine.”
Youngkin said this investment will be part of the creation of a pharmaceutical district that will stretch from Rockingham County to Goochland County, with other investments planned by both AstraZeneca and Eli Lilly.
Albemarle has been working to get the site recognized by the Virginia Partnership for Economic Development as having Tier 4 status, meaning that all infrastructure for the site would be ready within a year. Earlier this year, Albemarle County was awarded $9.7 million toward the effort.
The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported the announcement in late August in an article about the approval of three incentive packages by a state commission but exact locations were not confirmed at the time.
AstraZeneca is eligible to receive up to $191.3 million from the Major Employment and Investment Project Approval Commission based on the investment.
Near the end of the ceremony, Youngkin presented Virginia’s flag to Pascal Soriot, the executive director and chief executive officer of AstraZeneca.
“I came to this place and immediately fell in love with this site,” Soriot said. “There is enough space for expansion so we can continue building here.”
