U.K. defends negotiations with AstraZeneca, BBC News reports

The U.K. government is defending its negotiations with AstraZeneca (AZN), after the pharmaceutical company dropped a planned $558M investment last week, citing a shortfall in government funding, Vishala Sri-Pathma and Oliver Smith of BBC News report. Science minister Sir Chris Bryant told Parliament that the government had made a “significant offer” of support to the firm, but doing more “simply didn’t add up for the taxpayer” and that AstraZeneca’s decision had been “deeply disappointing.” The project would have seen an expansion of AstraZeneca’s vaccine manufacturing plant in Speke, Merseyside, the report notes.