LONDON, Oct 9 (Reuters) - AstraZeneca ( AZN ) 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 ( AZN ) plan announced in July

to spend $50 billion to expand U.S. research and manufacturing

by 2030. AstraZeneca ( AZN ) 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 site to

include production of blockbuster cancer medicines along with

future weight-loss and metabolic drugs. It said it would spend

$500 million more than initially planned.

The groundbreaking was attended by a senior Trump

administration health official, Dr Mehmet Oz, Administrator of

the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

"I congratulate AstraZeneca ( AZN ) for their investment and invite

other foreign manufacturers to follow suit," he said.

ANALYSTS ASK: ARE INDUSTRY MOVES LARGELY POLITICAL?

Trump has, using the threat of imposing tariffs on

pharmaceutical imports, extracted a range of concessions from

the industry.

Last week U.S. drugmaker Pfizer ( PFE ) announced at the

White House that it would slash drug prices in Medicaid for

low-income people and for new drugs in exchange for relief on

tariffs, setting a tone for drugmaker peers to match.

Analysts say such moves may have little impact on overall

revenues and that the impact on prices will also be limited,

raising questions over whether they are largely political.

ASTRAZENECA ( AZN ) CEO SORIOT NAVIGATES TRUMP'S DEMANDS ON INDUSTRY

AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot, who earlier this year described

his firm as a "very American company", has looked to balance

Trump's demands on the sector. Last month, the company announced

a full listing of its shares on the New York Stock Exchange and

said it would soon sell diabetes and asthma drugs direct to U.S.

patients at discounts of up to 70%.

On Thursday, Soriot said the Virginia facility would

"strengthen America's national security and health sovereignty",

after earlier this year criticising European governments for not

spending more on medicines.

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