By Maggie Fick

LONDON (Reuters) -AstraZeneca broke ground on a new plant in Virginia on Thursday and said it would spend $4.5 billion on the facility as drugmakers look to respond to President Donald Trump’s call for more medicines to be made in the U.S. and at lower costs.

The site in Albemarle County, about 120 miles (193 km) southwest of Washington, will be the Anglo-Swedish company’s largest manufacturing facility worldwide.

The investment is part of AstraZeneca’s plan announced in July to spend $50 billion to expand U.S. research and manufacturing by 2030. AstraZeneca said on Thursday the plant will create 600 highly skilled jobs, and 3,000 more will be created for its construction.

DRUGMAKERS LOOK TO RAMP UP U.S. MANUFACTURING

The company also said it was expanding plans for the

See Full Page