Overview

• A company statement said GSK will invest at least $30 billion in U.S. R&D and manufacturing over five years, including $1.2 billion for a new biologics plant in Pennsylvania and upgrades across multiple sites.
• AstraZeneca has put a £200 million Cambridge expansion on hold and earlier scrapped a £450 million vaccine project in Speke, while Merck/MSD cancelled a £1 billion London R&D center and Eli Lilly paused a planned London lab.
• Industry groups cite an “unsustainable” UK commercial environment, pointing to a 23.5% VPAS clawback on newer medicines and long‑static NICE cost‑effectiveness thresholds from 1999.
• Vallance told MPs the UK must reverse a decade‑long decline in medicines’ share of NHS spending and improve access to innovative drugs, even as formal pricing talks remain stalled.
• The moves come during President Trump’s state visit, with companies shifting capital to the U.S. under pricing and tariff pressure and ABPI data showing UK life‑sciences FDI down 58% since 2017 and the country’s pharma FDI ranking sliding from 2nd to 7th.