AstraZeneca's MedImmune expands biologics unit

AstraZeneca subsidiary MedImmune Inc opened a new biologics research and development centre in Cambridge, UK, a major expansion to its base at the former Cambridge Antibody Technology facility.  

The centre is named after the 1982 Nobel Prize Winner for Chemistry, Aaron Klug, who performed the official opening.

Following its acquisition by AstraZeneca in June 2007, MedImmune was consolidated with the former Cambridge Antibody Technology business, along with other areas of biological research being conducted elsewhere within AstraZeneca. It now operates as AstraZeneca’s global biologics unit, with the target of delivering an average of one new biologic product per year from 2013.

The Aaron Klug Building is part of a wider expansion of MedImmune’s European operations. Its opening follows the recent refurbishment and expansion of one of the company’s major production sites in Nijmegen in the Netherlands. Completed in early 2008, the site is capable of producing up to 10 discrete products each year, equating to 6.5 million vials.