AstraZeneca invests €600 million in new hub in Lisbon
AstraZeneca, one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world with operations in Portugal since 1999, is to invest €600 million in a new competencies hub in Lisbon.
The new hub, located in Parque das Nações in East Lisbon, is already in the development phase with the building expected to be ready at the end of this year or the beginning of next year and will employ at total of 500 people.
According to the business daily Negócios, the decision was announced by the new country president of AstraZeneca, Nathalie von Widdern. “We’ve already invested around €60 million but overall we’ll be investing around €600 million on this centre”, says von Widdern who took the helm at the subsidiary last month. (April)
The decision to choose Lisbon, which had competed against other countries, is part of the pharmaceutical company’s global strategy.
“We are creating ‘hubs’ all over the world to create synergies and then evaluate different countries worldwide. Portugal is very attractive for staff and in terms of talent, its educational system and ability of its professionals to speak other languages. Therefore, by having the hub in Lisbon is a strategy where we stand to win,” said Nathalie von Widdern who already knows Portugal well having led Bayer Portugal between 2018 and 2021.
The new competencies centre will serve AstraZeneca at an international level. Currently the drugs giant has nearly 100 premises in around 70 countries worldwide, providing multiple services.
“We have project management, finance, information technology, purchasing, and human resources, among other competencies.
The new competencies centre is still in the development phase and AstraZeneca is probably the largest big Pharma subsidiary in Portugal with around €300 million in sales in 2024, up 19% on 2023.
“We’re not only the largest company in terms of sales, but also in terms of employees counting local operations and the new hub,” she revealed.
AstraZeneca’s activity, which involves a strong Research & Scientific component, has also had significant Portuguese involvement in this area. “We’ve got Portuguese involved in 44 clinical trials while 57 studies have been carried out in Portugal. AstraZeneca also developed one of the first vaccines against Covid-19 that was administered in Portugal.
The company also plans to invest €20 million in studies over the next five years in Portugal. “AstraZeneca invests around 25% of its revenues every year – the largest percentage out of the big Pharma companies – while there are currently 50 AstraZeneca medicines available for sale in Portugal”, she said.
