Research & Development

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AstraZeneca employs nearly 12,000 people in R&D. We have six major joint discovery and development facilities in the UK, US and Sweden; a further four sites in the US, Canada, India and France which focus on discovery, and a facility in Japan for development. These resources are complemented by clinical development at 43 sites around the world.

The UK sites are at Alderley Park - Macclesfield, Cheshire where over 3,000 people are based and at Charnwood, Leicestershire with 1,200 people. Both these sites form part of the globally-managed R&D organisation.  At the same time we form partnerships with academia, governments, regulators, healthcare providers and major industry collaborators.

R&D Alderley Park - Macclesfield

Alderley Park - Macclesfield is the largest of AstraZeneca's R&D centres focusing on the discovery of innovative medicines in the areas of cancer, inflammation and heart disease. It is also the base for the Oncology and Infection Therapy Areas. The Therapy Areas are responsible for all activities in the 'life of a potential new medicine'; from concept, through development and product launch to withdrawal at the end of the product's life-cycle.

In addition to specific Research Areas, Discovery at Alderley Park has global centres of expertise in Enabling Science and Technology, Safety Assessment and Drug Metabolism, Pharmacokinetics. Development activities conducted on the Alderley Park site include Clinical and Regulatory support for a number of the AstraZeneca targeted therapy areas. A few miles away in Macclesfield, additional vital development work is undertaken in Process R&D and in Pharmaceutical and Analytical R&D.

Significant investment in new facilities is taking place in a multi-million pound programme planned over the next decade. This will provide additional laboratory and office accommodation which will help us to achieve the business objectives while providing an attractive working environment for employees.

Charnwood

The Loughborough based site is named AstraZeneca R&D Charnwood. Here research is focused on the disease areas - Respiratory and Inflammation. It is also the base for the Respiratory and Inflammation therapy area. In addition to specific research areas Discovery at Charnwood is a global centre of excellence in High Through Put Screening.

The Site also has four major development capabilities which support AstraZeneca's world-wide development capabilities; - Process R&D, Pharmaceutical and Analytical R&D, Clinical and Regulatory.

Visit one of our UK R&D sites....Take a virtual tour of our Charnwood location.

Want to know more about our approach to global research & development?
Visit the AstraZeneca International Site