AstraZeneca’s Manufacturing Facility, North Ryde, Sydney

AstraZeneca’s manufacturing facility is located in Sydney suburb North Ryde. Credit: AstraZeneca.

The facility produces sterile plastic bottles that are formed, filled, and sealed in an integrated process. Credit: AstraZeneca.

The investment in the plant will lead to the creation of 250 new jobs. Credit: AstraZeneca.

The manufacturing site is supported by commercial teams located on a nearby site. Credit: AstraZeneca.

The facility was installed with three new production lines for Pulmicort Respules in 2017. Credit: AstraZeneca.

AstraZeneca is working with the University of Oxford to deliver Covid-19 vaccine. Credit: AstraZeneca.

AstraZeneca’s manufacturing facility in North Ryde, Sydney, Australia is involved in the production and export of medicines, and has been operational for more than 60 years.

The company announced an expansion of the facility with an investment of A$200m ($134.9m) to boost its production capacity in February 2020.

The investment comes after the company disclosed plans for a A$100m ($67.44m) investment in 2017 to increase the production capacity of the plant.

Its latest expansion will add 250 new jobs, increasing the site’s exports to A$4.4bn ($2.97bn) in the coming four years, also providing asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients with more respiratory medications that make a difference in their lives.

The plant is one of the most digitised and creative in the global network of AstraZeneca. In addition to Australia, the facility supplies drugs to the Asia-Pacific region and other markets across the world.

Location of AstraZeneca’s manufacturing facility

The manufacturing plant is based in Sydney suburb North Ryde, New South Wales in Australia. It is among Australia’s largest pharmaceutical producers.

Commercial departments of the company are located on a site adjacent to the North Ryde plant.

AstraZeneca’s manufacturing facility details

The Sydney manufacturing site produces high-quality life-changing medicines for patients worldwide, considered an essential facility under the provisions of the Essential Services Act 1988 of the NSW Government. The facility has been meeting expected production levels in terms of manufacturing, launch, and supply of drugs.

Marketing, manufacturing, supply chain, and other teams near the North Ryde facility work in an agile office environment with dedicated areas to collaboratively generate and share ideas.

Its 2017 investment helped establish three new lines of production, each with the ability to manufacture 70 million units of asthma medicine, known as Pulmicort Respules, annually.

The site is known for its excellent delivery performance and is among the most cost-effective manufacturing locations in the company’s entire global network.

AstraZeneca delivered drug products worth A$500m ($338m) to the domestic market, manufacturing more than 80 different product types of diluents, local anaesthetics and respiratory products. It is China’s sole supplier of a primary respiratory product used to treat asthma.

The facility offers opportunities for training and development to employees.

The 1,070-strong workforce works at the North Ryde manufacturing and commercial facilities and also remotely from locations across Australia and New Zealand.

Marketing commentary on AstraZeneca

AstraZeneca is a multinational, science-led biopharmaceutical firm with a focus on the research, production, and distribution of prescription drugs, mainly for the treatment of diseases in the fields of oncology, neurological, cardiovascular, renal and metabolism (CVRM), and respiratory, inflammation and autoimmune oncology (RIA).

The company is working with various partners around the globe from academics, governments, industry, research institutions and patient groups to obtain access to the latest technology and molecules and to promote creativity.

The firm collaborated with Oxford University to develop, manufacture and distribute the latter’s Covid-19 vaccine candidate in April 2020. It received more than $1bn in investment support from the US Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) for the COVID-19 vaccine development efforts in the following month.

Research and development (R&D) departments of AstraZeneca are working to identify monoclonal antibodies to move them towards clinical trial testing as a potential cure for the symptoms of Covid-19.

AstraZeneca Australia is the biggest pharmaceutical producer in the country. It supplies approximately A$496m ($335m) of products to countries such as Japan, China, and New Zealand.

AstraZeneca operates in more than 100 countries with a total workforce of around 65,000 personnel. It has a global manufacturing network with sites in 15 countries.