AstraZeneca cuts ribbon on new R&D facility in Massachusetts
AZ's new global strategic R&D centre in Kendall Square.
AstraZeneca's pivot toward the US market has continued with the opening of a new R&D centre in the biotech hotspot of Cambridge, Massachusetts, the centrepiece of a $1 billion investment programme in the state.
The new facility in the Kendall Square area of the city – which is one of the densest biotech clusters in the world, with hundreds of small and large biopharma companies present – covers 570,000 square feet of lab and office space over 18 stories.
It is located at 290 Binney Street, a stone's throw away from AZ's site for genomic medicine at 100 Binney Street, and is part of a major investment programme by the UK-headquartered pharma group that was first announced in 2024 and dramatically expanded to around $50 billion last year.
AZ has said the investment programme in the world's largest pharma market will support its target of growing annual revenues to $80 billion by 2030, half coming from the US market, from a level of just under $59 billion last year.
The AZ R&D Centre Kendall Square will be home to nearly 2,000 researchers and scientists who will "accelerate the company's oncology, cell therapy, chronic disease, and rare disease pipeline to deliver transformative medicines of the future," said the company in a statement. It will grow AZ's workforce in Massachusetts by around 50%.
"Kendall Square is a leading innovation ecosystem, and it is one of the key locations where AstraZeneca will discover the next generation of scientific breakthroughs," said chief executive Pascal Soriot.
Projects at the facility will focus on diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), obesity and metabolic disease, breast cancer, and rare diseases – as well as new modalities like cell therapy.
"Our new R&D centre not only reflects AstraZeneca's long-term commitment to Massachusetts, but also our belief in delivering US-led innovation to patients around the world," added Soriot.
The facility has been commissioned with up-to-the-minute technologies like robotics, continuous automation, and agentic AI, with 10 floors of interconnecting laboratories "to allow a flow of seamless science."
AZ has been orienting itself more firmly around the US market of late, and earlier this year completed a direct listing of its ordinary shares on the NYSE, replacing its previous presence on the Nasdaq through American Depositary Receipts (ADRs), whilst also retaining its listing on the FTSE 100.
AZ's investment programme in the US also includes a new drug substance manufacturing plant in Virginia and upgrades to facilities in Maryland, Massachusetts, California, Indiana, and Texas.
