AstraZeneca R&D employs over 11,000 people at research facilities in the UK, the US, Sweden, France, Canada and India, complemented by a worldwide clinical development capability.

Our UK sites are at Alderley Park-Macclesfield, Cheshire where over 3,000 people are based and at Loughborough, Leicestershire with 1,200 people. Both these sites form part of the globally-managed organisation which is therapy area led and project driven. 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.

R&D Charnwood

Our Charnwood site near Loughborough, Leicestershire is focused on the disease areas - Respiratory and Inflammation. In addition Research '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.  At the same time major investment at the 70 acre site has created state of the art scientific laboratories and facilities.

Take a 360° tour of our R&D Charnwood site

Want to know more about R&D at AstraZeneca? Visit our global R&D site