Pharma giant AbbVie has committed to expanding its UK-based R&D facility in Oxford while separately penning a deal around an inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) asset worth up to $1.37bn with Nxera.
Through its UK-based investment, which makes up part of its £120m ($161m) investment into the UK life sciences ecosystem, AbbVie will build a new 12,000ft² site dedicated to immunology, neuroscience and oncology research at its existing campus in the South-Eastern British city of Oxford – significantly expanding its research capabilities in the region.
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While AbbVie is playing its cards close to its chest on exactly what will occur at the new site, the Chicago-headquartered pharma giant’s SVP and global head of discovery research, Jon Sedwick, noted that it will help the company build on its human biology and reverse translation approach to drug discovery and development.
The expansion builds on AbbVie’s prior $255m takeover of Oxford-based biotech, DJS Antibodies in 2022, which saw the former absorb the latter’s lead candidate and LPAR1 antagonist, DJS-002.
In a conversation with Pharmaceutical Technology, AbbVie UK’s VP and general manager, Kelly Sanderson Schrems, noted that the company’s investment “reflects the strength” of the UK as a life sciences hub.
“Oxford is a leading life sciences ecosystem that brings together academic and clinical expertise and strong scientific talent,” Sanderson Schrems commented.
She also expressed her positivity around the government’s recent commitments to supporting life sciences growth.
“The priority now is ensuring those commitments translate into meaningful progress, particularly in improving patient access to and uptake of innovative medicines; this progress is critical to improving health outcomes and strengthening the UK’s competitiveness for future research investment,” Sanderson Schrems added.
AbbVie’s $1.38bn bet on Nxera’s IBD drug
On top of its UK-based R&D expansion, AbbVie has also deepened its ties with Japanese pharmaceutical company, Nxera, through a billion-dollar licensing deal.
As per this exclusive global agreement, AbbVie will hand over $100m upfront and up to $1.37bn in development and commercial milestones to secure the rights to develop and commercialise Nxera’s EP4 receptor agonist, NXE0033744 – a novel small molecule currently in development for IBD.
According to Nxera, NXE0033744 could offer differentiated efficacy in IBD due to its ability to offer gut-selective anti-inflammatory activity. Thus far, the company has already found the drug to be both gut-selective and capable of engaging with a target in a Phase I study.
This builds on the duo’s neuroscience-focused discovery partnership initiated in 2022, which is focused on developing G protein-coupled receptor-targeting drugs for neurological diseases.
AbbVie inks this deal with Nxera as it looks to expand its legacy in the immunology space, following the loss of market exclusivity of disease area big sellers like Stelara (ustekinumab) and the burgeoning success of Stelara successor, Skyrizi (risankizumab).
UK life sciences on an upward trajectory
AbbVie chooses to allocate funds towards its UK life sciences presence as the British government takes several steps to make the nation more competitive on the global stage – with policies like the Life Sciences Sector Plan looking to make the UK more attractive as a place for companies in the space to do business.
This comes a little after several big pharma companies pulled out of the UK. In September 2025, MSD, known as Merck & Co in the US, ditched its plans for a £1bn R&D centre in the UK due to souring sentiments linked to high clawback rates and lacklustre government investment in the sector, while UK-Swedish AstraZeneca pulled the plug on its £450m vaccine manufacturing centre due to state funding cuts.
However, it appears that the British government’s efforts are beginning to bear fruit, as a recent report from the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) revealed that the UK has received £2bn in total investment since September 2025.
Meanwhile, another report from the UK BioIndustry Association (BIA) revealed that the UK is poised to post its best year since 2021 for biotech venture capital (VC) acquisition, pointing to early progress in the continued recovery of the sector.
