By Sara Gilgore – Staff Reporter, Washington Business Journal –
AstraZeneca PLC (NYSE: AZN) has opened a new Rockville manufacturing hub, a whopping $300 million investment for the British pharmaceutical giant — and a big win for Montgomery County in a tough moment for the sector locally.
The company, which held a ribbon-cutting event Monday, intends to use its 85,000-square-foot Rockville Manufacturing Center at 9950 Medical Center Drive to initially make T-cell therapies for clinical trials in cancer. It had unveiled its plans for the project last February and is now getting ready to move people in.
“Rockville represents the future of manufacturing,” an AstraZeneca spokesperson told me over email, noting the space was built out using 3D-modeling, virtual reality and artificial intelligence, which helped speed up operational and construction timelines.
“We have moved at unprecedented speed to get our site to operational readiness and are looking forward to delivering potentially transformative therapies to patients living with cancer and autoimmune conditions from early next year,” Pam Cheng, AstraZeneca’s executive vice president of global operations and IT, and chief sustainability officer, said in a statement.
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