Virginia lawmakers back big pharma deals for AstraZeneca

Virginia lawmakers have approved two proposed economic development packages for advanced pharmaceutical manufacturing plants proposed by AstraZeneca in Albemarle County and Eli Lilly & Co. in Goochland County, according to multiple state sources.

The moves come as the state looks to establish itself as a center for the fast-growing industry.

The Major Employer Investment Project Approval Commission, known as MEI, voted unanimously to adopt state incentive packages for the projects proposed by AstraZeneca and Eli Lilly & Co., two of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies, the sources said. The commission, composed of senior members of the General Assembly budget committees, did not provide details of the state incentive packages but valued each at more than $10 million.

The companies have not publicly confirmed details of their respective projects, including location, but in Washington last month, AstraZeneca joined Gov. Glenn Youngkin in publicly announcing that it would build a multibillion-dollar advanced pharmaceutical manufacturing plant in Virginia.

Neither the company nor the governor would say where, but the answer is Albemarle, with its proximity to the University of Virginia and the Paul and Dianne Manning Institute of Biotechnology in the county, the sources said.

The Manning Institute, which will open next year in a research park next to I-64, is led by Mark Esser, a former vice president at AstraZeneca and an alumnus of the UVa School of Medicine.

Eli Lilly would build its project in Goochland, the sources said. The company said in February that it plans to build four new manufacturing sites to boost production of medicine in the United States. The company wouldn’t comment on Tuesday about whether it had chosen Virginia for one of the sites.

“As announced in February, Lilly is actively evaluating manufacturing site locations throughout the U.S. to expand capacity to meet the growing demand for our current and future pipeline medicines across multiple therapeutic areas,” a company spokesperson said Tuesday. “Any future decisions will be shared at the appropriate time.”

A Youngkin spokesperson declined to comment Tuesday about the MEI vote, which came publicly after the panel met in closed session to discuss the proposed project.

“Advanced manufacturing is at the heart of Virginia’s dynamic economy, so I am thrilled that AstraZeneca, one of the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies, plans to make their largest global manufacturing investment here in the Commonwealth,” Youngkin said at the July announcement.

AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot appeared with Youngkin and Kevin Hassett, director of the White House National Economic Council, at a news conference in Washington, D.C., on July 21 — 11 days before Trump’s deadline for proposed new tariffs.

AstraZeneca, created in the 1999 merger of British and Swedish companies, is based in the United Kingdom.

“We happen to be in London, but our heart … is in this country,” Soriot said.

“What I would say is that I totally support and totally understand the need for countries like the United States to want to see products, medicines, serving patients in this country, in manufacturing in this country,” he added. “It’s a question of national security.”

AstraZeneca presented the proposed project as the linchpin of a $50 billion plan over the next five years that also includes new and expanded operations in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, a new research-and-development center in Cambridge, Mass., and new investments in sites in California, Indiana and Texas.

Similarly, Eli Lilly said in February that it is committing $50 billion to domestic manufacturing over five years, more than doubling its previous investments for new and expanded sites in North Carolina, Indiana and Wisconsin.

The proposed AstraZeneca and Eli Lilly sites in Virginia would be major new links in a pharmaceutical manufacturing corridor from the Shenandoah Valley, where Merck & Co. has operated a manufacturing plant for more than 75 years, to the Richmond and Petersburg area.

Youngkin seals deal on pharmaceutical project, but where?

Gov. Glenn Youngkin says he has a deal for a multibillion-dollar pharmaceutical factory in Virginia, but he doesn’t yet have a final site for the project.

Greater Richmond, including Petersburg, has been building a pharmaceutical manufacturing hub in recent years. The Alliance for Better Medicine is a collaboration that includes Virginia Commonwealth University’s Medicines for All, which rebuilds medications with cheaper building blocks; Phlow Corp., which established a national reserve of key drug building blocks and Civica Inc., a nonprofit drug maker planning to sell insulin at a discounted rate.

The two proposed projects reflected the availability of suitable “project ready sites,” which has been an economic development priority for Youngkin, and a large, specialized work force, one source said.

https://www.pilotonline.com/2025/08/28/virginia-lawmakers-back-big-pharma-deals-for-astrazeneca/