Editor’s Note: This contributed content was written by the Virginia Economic Development Partnership and was approved for publication by Area Development.
Virginia closed 2025 with a great deal of momentum in the life sciences space, with multi-billion-dollar investments from Eli Lilly and Company and AstraZeneca choosing the Commonwealth for their latest expansions and Merck & Co. breaking ground on its new manufacturing facility at its existing Elkton site. The announcements highlight two of Virginia’s greatest strengths in the life sciences industry — workforce and site development — and speak to a growing consensus that the Commonwealth can deliver what companies need, quickly.
“We want to be able to work with partners in the permitting sector that understand us, that we can trust and move fast,” AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot said. “Virginia’s team is extremely fast. We as a company always say ‘AstraZeneca speed’ — there’s competition and we need to move fast. We’ve discovered the world of Virginia speed. They move so quickly.”
What appears from the outside as sudden success is the result of a strategy years in the making. Virginia has spent decades aligning education, workforce, research and development, sites, and logistics to the needs of an industry defined by precision, scale, and speed. Today, Virginia offers executives a rapidly deployable, end-to-end platform to produce the next generation of medicines — and a proof of concept that its economic development and permitting model works.
Virginia’s team is extremely fast. We as a company always say ‘AstraZeneca speed’ — there’s competition and we need to move fast. We’ve discovered the world of Virginia speed. They move so quickly.
Virginia’s educational excellence is well established, having been ranked No. 1 in education for the past three consecutive years and six times total by CNBC. Virginia’s K-12 system, colleges and universities, and workforce development programs ensure companies have access to a highly skilled workforce. Flagship institutions like Virginia Commonwealth University (including the Medicines for All Institute), the University of Virginia (with the Paul and Diane Manning Institute of Biotechnology), and Virginia Tech (and its Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC, associated with the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine) are nationally recognized for educating engineers and scientists while advancing medical research.
The Virginia Talent Accelerator Program, ranked as the No. 1 customized workforce training program in the United States by Business Facilities the last three years, is a key point in Virginia’s workforce pitch to prospective companies. The program, created by VEDP in collaboration with the Virginia Community College System and other higher education partners, provides world-class training and recruitment solutions that are fully customized to a given company’s needs. All program services are provided at no cost to qualified new and expanding companies as an incentive for job creation. Lilly, AstraZeneca, and Merck are all using Talent Accelerator services to staff their new facilities.
AstraZeneca also capitalized on another VEDP program helping attract businesses to the Commonwealth: the Virginia Business Ready Sites Program (VBRSP), which identifies and assesses the readiness of potential industrial sites. The program helps to develop the sites and obtain permits and approvals to make for a smoother construction process. The VBRSP helps Virginia improve companies’ speed to market, and its preparation efforts are aimed at getting new facilities up and running as efficiently as possible.
Global industry leaders are validating the Commonwealth’s model. The new investments by AstraZeneca, Lilly, and Merck affirm Virginia’s capabilities and will strengthen Virginia’s momentum in attracting and retaining talent. The ripple effect creates more opportunity for students, more choice for companies, and a deeper ecosystem for innovation in Virginia.
