AstraZeneca multiplies its commitment to Barcelona with an investment of 800 million

AstraZeneca multiplies its commitment to Barcelona, where a year ago it decided to locate its European center for rare disease research. The excellence hub in the Catalan capital will expand by incorporating the pharmaceutical multinational's first R&D center that will cover all its main therapeutic areas, developing new therapies for cancer or respiratory diseases.

"We have defended this country as the best to make this investment and we have achieved it," said the company's president in Spain, Rick R. Suárez, visibly emotional at the presentation of the new hub, "it is a firm commitment." "The main objective will be to innovate in health and develop new solutions for unmet needs," he explained, relying on digital technology and data science to do so.

The company plans to disburse some 800 million euros in the development of the new center over the next five years, "as long as the situation in the country remains stable," as he has remarked on more than one occasion. Since the opening of the Alexion center, AstraZeneca's rare disease division, the multinational has already allocated 32 million euros to its Barcelona offices. "It is an unprecedented investment, the largest ever made in R&D in Catalonia," remarked the President of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, accompanied by the third deputy mayor of Barcelona, Laia Bonet, and the general secretary of Research of the Ministry of Science and Innovation, Raquel Yotti.

The R&D hub will involve the hiring of 1,000 highly qualified professionals. According to sources from the Anglo-Swedish company, about 50 workers have already joined. Very varied scientific profiles will be sought, from doctors, biologists and pharmacists to engineers, mathematicians and data analysis specialists. The new professionals will join the 90 employees hired at the Alexion headquarters, with more than 20 nationalities.

To accommodate the new hires, the contracted area in the current offices, located in the Pedrables Centre, will have to be expanded. Since its launch late last year, they only occupied one floor and will now add two more. "We have decided to be in the city, within the ecosystem, to be able to collaborate, also with national and European reference centers," said Gonzalo de Miquel, vice president of Alexion and head of the Barcelona center.

The international projects that the new R&D center will lead will be in areas such as oncology; cardiovascular, renal and metabolism; respiratory diseases and immunology; vaccines and immunotherapies, and rare diseases. However, De Miquel has advanced that more transversal fields such as clinical pharmacology and digital health will also be addressed.

Spain will strengthen its leadership position for the pharmaceutical multinational from Barcelona, Suárez emphasized, increasing the clinical trials carried out in hospitals across the country. In 2022, some 300 clinical trials were underway, affecting about 4,500 patients. "This figure will be notably increased in the coming years," he assured.

"Not only will we increase the number of clinical trials, but we will do them in more relevant phases. This will increase Spain's presence in global research," De Miquel continued, giving a first example of the studies that will be led from the Catalan capital. It will focus on the area of rare diseases, with three trials involving about 20 countries: "There will be many more projects like this." Likewise, AstraZeneca recently announced the investment of six million euros in a program of the Vall d'Hebron Institute of Oncology (VHIO) focused on opening new lines of research in personalized medicine applied to cancer.