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Britain's Prince Charles to open new AstraZeneca research centre

Britain's Prince Charles to open new AstraZeneca research centre

Test tubes are seen in front of a displayed AstraZeneca logo in this illustration taken on May 21, 2021. (Photo: REUTERS/Dado Ruvic)

LONDON: Britain's Prince Charles will formally open a new £1 billion (US$1.3 billion) AstraZeneca research and development (R&D) facility on Tuesday (Nov 23), as the company aims to fuel the growth of its drug pipeline.

AstraZeneca has supplied two billion doses of its COVID-19 vaccine, developed at Oxford University, and is also looking to bring a preventative antibody cocktail against COVID-19 to market.

But while the company is setting up a separate division for vaccine and antibody therapies in light of the coronavirus pandemic, it has also beefed up other areas of research.

Earlier this year, AstraZeneca completed the US$39 billion purchase of rare-disease specialist Alexion.

"Our new Discovery Centre in Cambridge raises the bar for sustainable R&D and global collaboration across our industry," Chief Executive Pascal Soriot said in a statement.

"It will allow us to break new boundaries in the understanding of disease biology, bring life-changing medicines to patients and power the next stage of our company's growth."

AstraZeneca, which has a large portfolio of treatments for diseases like cancer, heart disease and diabetes, said the centre would support research into specialised medicines and next-generation therapeutics, including gene-editing and cell therapies.

Prince Charles, son of Queen Elizabeth and heir to the throne, will take a walking tour of the centre and give a short address at the opening.

Source: Reuters/jt

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