AstraZeneca is investing $200 million in a new manufacturing site in China Medical City (CMC), Taizhou, Jiangsu province, China. The new site represents AstraZeneca’s largest investment in a single manufacturing facility globally.

The site will produce intravenous and oral solid medicines for the company’s business in China. Construction of the site is scheduled to be complete at the end of 2013.

AstraZeneca first established a presence in China in 1993 and generated more than $1 billion in revenues in that country in 2010. AstraZeneca’s other facilities and project work in China include a manufacturing and supply site in Wuxi New District, Jiangsu Province; the AstraZeneca Innovation Center China, a translational science center; an established sales and marketing operation; large-scale clinical development capabilities; and a network of collaborations with academic and medical institutions.

AstraZeneca’s plans for its new manufacturing site in China follow recent investment in emerging markets. In June 2011, AstraZeneca unveiled plans to establish a Predictive Science Center in St. Petersburg, Russia. The center will be staffed with 30 employees and focus on developing bioinformatics, data-analysis methods, software, and systems to help predict the safety and efficacy of potential new medicines. Earlier this year, the company began constructing a $150-million manufacturing facility in the Kaluga region to supply locally manufactured medicines in Russia.

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