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British drugmaker AstraZeneca has warned that it could relocate its manufacturing site from the United Kingdom to the United States. According to a report by the Financial Times, the company is threatening to leave as the new Labour government over plans to cut state aid have become deadlocked.
British finance minister Rachel Reeves wants to reduce state provisions to the company’s vaccine centre, which will cut the pledge made by the previous administration from about 90 million pounds to 40 million pounds, the report said, citing sources.
The previous offer included up to 70 million in grants to develop a facility in Speke, Liverpool and 20 million pounds in research and development support from the UK Health Security Agency, the Financial Times report said.
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Manufacturing could take place in India, where the company has produced vaccines in the past, people briefed on the discussions told the newspaper.
“We are committed to pursuing the opportunity at Speke and are in constructive discussions with the UK government. We have no idea where the comments in some media come from and they do not seem to be based on facts. As an example, there are no discussions in the US or India,” AztraZeneca spokesperson said.
“We are in positive discussions with AstraZeneca to support the delivery of this planned investment in Speke,” a UK Treasury spokesperson said.
The Sunak administration in March planned to invest 650 million pounds in the Anglo-Swedish drugmaker to boost research, development and manufacturing of vaccines.
(With inputs from Reuters)