Pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca to invest 540 million in R&D in Barcelona

• AstraZeneca acquired the respiratory division of Almirall for 1.5 billion euros.
• Barcelona is now home to one of the five AstraZeneca research centers in the world.  

British pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, which acquired the respiratory disease division of Catalan company Almirall for 1.5 billion euros a few months ago, will invest 540 million euros between 2015 and 2017 to create a global research center in Barcelona focusing on this type of conditions, according to sources inside the company.

This will make the Catalan capital home to one of the five AstraZeneca research centers in the world, along with teams located in the United Kingdom, Sweden, the United States and Germany. The R&D center the company will open in Barcelona will bring together its own researchers and those from Almirall, for a total of 75 to 80 researchers. AstraZeneca highlights the excellent reputation of scientists working in Barcelona.

The company’s R&D center in Barcelona, located in 1,500 m2 that the company has leased in the Dau building, at the top end of Avinguda Diagonal, will focus on basic research into products in the respiratory field that will be taken to market in the short or long term.

AstraZeneca is a global biopharmaceutical company focused on developing and marketing prescription drugs, mainly to treat cardiovascular, respiratory, inflammatory, oncological and central nervous system diseases. They employ 51,700 people around the world in Europe (46%), America (28%) and Asia-Pacific (26%).