AstraZeneca to build $1.5 bln cancer drug facility

SINGAPORE

British pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca said yesterday that it planned to build a $1.5 billion plant in Singapore to manufacture next-generation drugs to treat cancer.

The facility, to be ready by 2029, will produce antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs), a promising type of treatment that attacks cancer cells without damaging the surrounding healthy ones, the company said in a statement.

The facility will be AstraZeneca's "first end-to-end ADC production site, fully incorporating all steps of the manufacturing process at a commercial scale," the firm said.

The investment has the support of the city-state's Economic Development Board (EDB), the statement added, without disclosing details of the government's incentives.

"We welcome AstraZeneca's decision to establish a manufacturing presence in Singapore for the first time. It will also be a first for AstraZeneca, an end-to-end manufacturing facility for novel antibody drug conjugates that enables precision therapy for cancer," EDB chairman Png Cheong Boon said.

AstraZeneca chief executive Pascal Soriot said ADCs "have shown enormous potential to replace traditional chemotherapy for patients across many settings."

AstraZeneca also said it would work with the government and other partners to make the facility environmentally friendly by designing it "to emit zero carbon from its first day of operations."