AstraZeneca financial docs confirm Japanese firm could buy Boulder plant

BOULDER — Last month the Colorado Economic Development Commission approved a series of tax incentives to help an unnamed company take over the vacant AstraZeneca PLC plant in Boulder. At the time, BizWest speculated that the unnamed firm was likely Japanese contract drug maker AGC Biologics. AstraZeneca confirmed those suspicions this week.

Buried nearly 200 pages into the firm’s recently released annual report is a direct reference to AGC and the Boulder plant at 5550 Airport Blvd. 

The two firms “signed a letter of intent Nov. 27, 2019, to sell the facility to AGC Bio, with both parties agreeing to close the transaction before the end of first quarter 2020,” the annual report exhibit said. The sales price is expected to be about $70 million.

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Neither AstraZeneca nor AGC responded to BizWest’s requests for additional details, but information provided in February to the Colorado Economic Development Commission sheds some light on the project. 

The state approved $6,404,990 in performance-based job growth incentive tax credits over an eight-year period and $75,000 in performance-based strategic fund cash incentives over a five-year period. Should AGC accept the incentives, it pledges to create 280 new jobs that pay an average annual wage of $96,253. Overall, the firm has indicated its local investment would total about $100 million.

The 2019 closure of AstraZeneca’s plants in Boulder and in Longmont at 4000 Nelson Road resulted in the loss of more than 200 jobs. 

AstraZeneca took over the Boulder County facilities from pharmaceutical maker Amgen in 2015 and 2016. The Longmont facility was bought last year by Swiss biologics firm AveXis, a Novartis company. Avexis will make Zolgensma, a one-time therapy for young children with spinal muscular atrophy, at that plant.