AstraZeneca pauses £200m investment in Cambridge research site
The drugmaker AstraZeneca has paused a planned £200m expansion of its Cambridge research site, completing a depressing week for the UK pharmaceutical industry.The decision by the UK’s largest company means none of its much-trumpeted £650m investment package in the UK – which was originally announced in March 2024 – is proceeding.The now stalled £200m Cambridge project had been expected to create 1,000 jobs.In January, AstraZeneca scrapped plans to invest £450m in its vaccine manufacturing facility in Speke, Merseyside, citing a cut in government support, after months of negotiations.An AstraZeneca spokesperson said on Friday: “We constantly reassess the investment needs of our company and can confirm our expansion in Cambridge is paused.
We have no further comment to make.”The latest UK setback contrasts with the company’s moves in other jurisdictions.In July the company announced it would invest $50bn (£37bn) in the US by 2030, as part of a string of pledges by pharmaceutical companies as Donald Trump’s threats to impose sector-specific tariffs loom over the industry.The British drugmaker, which is headquartered in Cambridge, said its US investment would fund a new drug manufacturing facility in Virginia, and expand its laboratories and cell therapy manufacturing in Maryland, Massachusetts, California, Indiana and Texas.The news from AstraZeneca caps a week of negative announcements and warnings from a crucial UK industry.
Keir Starmer’s government has described life sciences as “one of the crown jewels of the UK economy”, while the previous Conservative government had vowed to turn the country into a “global science and technology superpower” by 2030.Yet on Wednesday, the US drugmaker Merck, known as MSD in Europe, scrapped a £1bn London research centre as well as laying off 125 scientists in the capital this year.Its planned new lab, called the UK Discovery Centre, opposite St Pancras and King’s Cross stations was already under construction and scheduled to open in two years’ time.It had been expected to employ about 800 people.A day later, Sir John Bell, a prominent scientist and former regius professor of medicine at the University of Oxford, warned that other big pharmaceutical companies were going to stop investing in the UK.
He told BBC Radio 4 he had spoken to several chief executives of large pharmaceutical companies in the past six months “and they’re all in the same space, and that is, they’re not going to do any more investing in the UK”,Then on Friday, Paul Naish, the UK head of market access for the French pharmaceuticals company Sanofi, told the Guardian Britain needed a “proper plan from the Treasury” for life sciences, arguing the country had become “not a good place” to develop or sell drugs,Sign up to Business TodayGet set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morningafter newsletter promotionSanofi said: “Any substantial inward investment into the UK is currently on pause until we see tangible progress towards making the life sciences environment internationally competitive,”Also this week, Eli Lilly, a US drugmaker, said its planned London gateway lab, an incubator space for new drugs that brings together researchers, part of a £279m investment, was on hold,The pharmaceutical industry has long argued that the UK needs to spend more on new medicines, bringing the NHS’s outlay on medications more in line with other countries.
A row between the sector and the health secretary, Wes Streeting, intensified after long-running NHS pricing negotiations broke down without an agreement in late August.Officials at the department of health, concerned after MSD’s move to pull out of research in the UK, reportedly want to reopen those talks.The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry wants the clawback rate – at which drugmakers pay back a chunk of their UK revenues to the NHS – reduced from nearly 23% to single digits, similar to levels in other European countries.
Starmer urged to do more to push back against ‘onslaught of racism’
Senior Labour MPs and the UK’s largest anti-fascist campaign group have called on Keir Starmer to mount a more heartfelt defence of diversity and anti-racism. They say they fear that Labour is not yet putting its “heart and soul” into the battle against Nigel Farage and the far right.Hope Not Hate’s chief executive has written a letter to Starmer in the lead up to a planned far-right demonstration in London on Saturday, demanding the prime minister speak up more against hate and racism.In the letter, Nick Lowles said: “Hate breeds when those in power are silent. I implore you and other ministers to speak out urgently in defence of our migrant communities and our multicultural society more generally
Share your question for the Labour party deputy leadership candidates
Education secretary Bridget Phillipson, and the ousted cabinet minister Lucy Powell, are set to be the two candidates for Labour’s deputy leadership as other candidates struggled to get the minimum number of nominations.On Wednesday evening, Phillipson had the backing of 116 MPs and Powell had 77 nominations, three short of the required 80.Bell Ribeiro-Addy and Paula Barker received support from fewer than 15 MPs, with Emily Thornberry announcing on Thursday she had withdrawn from the race. The communities minister Alison McGovern pulled out on Wednesday afternoon and endorsed Phillipson.The ballot for members to vote will open on Wednesday 8 October and they will have until Thursday 23 October to have their say
Sir Robert Worcester obituary
On the morning of 16 March 1976, Robert Worcester – universally known as “Bob” – received the phone call that converted him from the head of a little-known market research company into the public face of polling in Britain. The call was from Harold Evans, the editor of the Sunday Times. Harold Wilson had just announced his retirement as prime minister. Evans wanted to find out whom voters wanted as the next Labour leader. Who better to conduct the survey than Labour’s own private pollster: Worcester himself?The poll, showing James Callaghan well ahead, provided the front-page lead for the following Sunday’s paper
UK needed ‘unconventional’ US ambassador when picking Mandelson, minister says
The UK government believed an “unconventional presidential administration” required an “unconventional ambassador” when it appointed Peter Mandelson as US ambassador, a cabinet minister has said.But the Scotland secretary, Douglas Alexander, told broadcasters Mandelson would not have been given the role had the prime minister known the depth of his association with the convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.Keir Starmer is facing increasing questions over what he knew and when of Mandelson’s ties with Epstein. The prime minister sacked him on Thursday after emails showed he sent supportive messages even as Epstein faced jail for sex offences.Alexander told Sky News he had reacted with “incredulity and revulsion” to the publication of emails between Mandelson and Epstein, adding he was “not here to defend him”
Peter Mandelson’s advisory firm cuts ties amid Jeffrey Epstein revelations
Peter Mandelson’s advisory firm is cutting ties with him after his firing as US ambassador after the extent of his relationship with the child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was revealed in emails.Global Counsel, which Mandelson co-founded in 2010 alongside Benjamin Wegg-Prosser, is selling off his multimillion pound stake.The company started the sell-off of Mandelson’s stake this year and is expected to conclude the process in the next two months, according to a person familiar with the matter.Mandelson’s ties to Global Counsel came under fresh scrutiny after the depth and extent of his relationship with Epstein was revealed by the emails, including the suggestion that his first conviction was wrongful and should be challenged.His relationship with Epstein extended to describing him as his “best pal”, and a photograph emerged this week of Mandelson lounging in a white bathrobe with Epstein
UK imposes 100 new sanctions targeting Russia’s revenues and military supplies
The UK government has implemented 100 new sanctions designed to hit Russia’s revenues and military supplies, including against its so-called shadow fleet carrying oil and electronics companies.The move announced by the UK foreign secretary, Yvette Cooper, as she travels to Kyiv, comes as Vladimir Putin continues to obstruct peace efforts by launching the largest air attack of the war against Ukraine, with more than 800 missiles and drones fired in a single night.The numbers of Russian drones and missiles launched against Ukraine – 6,500 in July alone – are 10 times the level of a year ago, with recent strikes directly hitting the Ukrainian cabinet of ministers, damaging the British Council and EU delegation buildings in Kyiv and a violation of Nato airspace over Poland.On Friday, sanctions were imposed on 70 more ships in Russia’s “shadow fleet” that transport Russian oil, while 30 entities and individuals supporting Russia’s war machine by supplying key equipment such as electronics, chemicals and explosives used to manufacture missiles and other weapons systems were also targeted.Sanctions have also been imposed on the China-based Shenzhen Blue Hat International Trade Co, and its Russian co-owners, Elena Malitckaia and Alexey Malitskiy, and Turkey-based MastelMakina İthalat İhracat Limited Şirketi and its chief executive, the Azerbaijani national Shanlik Shukurov
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