Inside AstraZeneca’s abandoned UK vaccine plant deal as Labour and Tories face questions over £450m collapse AstraZeneca’s planned vaccine hub for Liverpool is off the table - business editor Karl Matchett and Whitehall editor Kate Devlin question why it fell through.
Labour’s minister for science, innovation and technology, Chris Bryant, told the House of Commons there was “a significant change in the [...] proposed investment [by AstraZeneca], resulting in a smaller level of research and development being conducted in the UK”.
Along with the £12m gap in government funding offers - equivalent to just over 2.5 per cent of the entire £450m deal - AstraZeneca cited “timing” as another reason for rejecting the deal.
AstraZeneca did not comment on a question put to them around on the numbers but industry insiders have told The Independent that the company did not at any point disclose the breakdown of their planned investment, which involved product manufacturing and facilities as well as research.
“In the same week they talked about growth, Labour seem to have fumbled a deal with one of the UK’s largest companies and [one] central to the critical Life Sciences sector,” added Mr Griffith.
