AstraZeneca investit 15 milliards de dollars en Chine tandis qu’un ex-dirigeant est poursuivi
AstraZeneca a annoncé un investissement de 15 milliards de dollars dans ses sites chinois de R&D et de production d’ici 2030, afin de placer la Chine au rang de pôle d’innovation mondial aux côtés des États-Unis et de l’Europe. Cette stratégie est toutefois menée dans un contexte de procédures judiciaires, l’ancien patron en Chine, Leon Wang, faisant l’objet de poursuites pour collecte illégale de données, commerce illégal et fraude à l’assurance maladie.
UK pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca said in January it will invest $15 billion in its Chinese research and production facilities through 2030, putting China on par with the US and Europe as an innovation hub at a time of fierce global rivalry. The announcement comes as the company navigates significant legal challenges in the country, with China formally charging the company's former head of its China business Leon Wang more than a year after his detention.
According to the company, Wang and another former senior employee were charged with "unlawful collection of personal information, illegal trade, and medical insurance fraud." They are expected to stand trial in a court in Shenzhen, although a date has not been set. AstraZeneca's China subsidiary was also charged with unlawful collection of personal information and illegal trading. However, the company said there was no allegation that it had benefited from any "illegal gain" linked to the data collection, and it was not charged with medical insurance fraud.
The charges relate to illegal trading stem from a probe into the alleged unauthorized importation and the sale of the cancer drug Imjudo, which is approved in other markets but not in China. Separately, Chinese authorities have investigated the importation of other oncology medicines, including Imfinzi and Enhertu.
Wang, who led AstraZeneca's China operations for roughly a decade, was detained back in 2024, with his arrest triggering a sharp sell-off in AstraZeneca shares at the time, amid broader investigations by Chinese authorities into company executives and alleged medical insurance fraud and drug importation practices. As head of the China business, Wang had spearheaded a localization strategy that expanded sales teams and helped drive growth, particularly in oncology.
In November, AstraZeneca said it had prepaid approximately $3.5 million in import taxes to Chinese customs authorities to address part of the investigation, though it cautioned that it could still face additional fines of up to $17.5 million. The company has since taken steps to stabilize its local operations and leadership. In December 2024, AstraZeneca appointed a new international executive vice president to replace Wang and later installed long-standing executive Iskra Reic to oversee the Shanghai office.
Despite the legal challenges, AstraZeneca's $15-billion investment commitment goes directly against recent US and European policies aimed at protecting their biotech industries from competition. The US BIOSECURE Act, passed in December, limits the role of Chinese firms in US biotechnology R&D. The draft Biotech Act, which the European Commission published almost simultaneously, aims to close the innovation gap with the US and China.
Including a $2.5 billion investment in its Beijing lab announced in 2025, AstraZeneca will have two strategic labs each in China, the US and Europe (Sweden and the UK). China-based staff is to reach 20,000, overtaking both the US (18,000) and the UK (about 10,000), whereas China is only about 12 percent of global sales. Moreover, the company is investing much less in its other R&D hubs. It has put $820 million in planned UK investments on hold, partly due to issues with government support.
The $15-billion commitment puts AstraZeneca in an elite club of large China investors, such as Volkswagen and BASF. Like these, the company will spur China's domestic eco-system of suppliers, labs and partners, particularly in the development of cutting-edge treatments using cell therapy and radio conjugates. AstraZeneca typically explores innovative drugs together with local partners, leading to licensing deals where the company buys global marketing rights.
A prominent Chinese partner is CSPC Pharmaceuticals, which uses AI to identify treatments for chronic diseases. CSPC and AstraZeneca signed deals worth $2.1 billion in 2024, $5.2 billion in 2025, and $18.5 billion in 2026, each time covering several assets, most notably the weight loss drug SYH2082.
Despite the legal overhang, AstraZeneca's shares have recovered from their post-detention decline, supported by strong financial results and investor confidence that the long-term impact of the probes may be limited.