AstraZeneca has announced plans to expand its US biologics manufacturing centre in Frederick, Maryland, spending more than $200 million to increase production in support of its "maturing pipeline".

The company says the investment will help it keep pace “with a growing demand for the development and use of biologics, which currently represent nearly 50% of AstraZeneca’s overall pipeline”. The expansion, which is expected to be complete in mid-2017, will add 40,000 square feet of manufacturing, laboratory and administrative space and bring 300 new jobs to the site; the company currently employs over 3,000 people in Maryland.

Andrew Skibo, regional head of biologics supply for AstraZeneca, noted that the firm’s MedImmune unit “has a robust pipeline of more than 120 biologics, including more than 30 in clinical development. The expansion of our Frederick facility will support the progression of drug candidates across our core therapeutic areas”.