British pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca said Tuesday it would invest $50 billion in the United States amid a looming deadline of ramped-up tariffs from Washington.

A large chunk of the funds will go toward building a multi-billion-dollar manufacturing centre in Virginia, the company said in a statement, adding that it expects 50 percent of its revenue to come from the United States by 2030.

"Today’s announcement underpins our belief in America’s innovation in biopharmaceuticals," the statement quoted CEO Pascal Soriot as saying.

US President Donald Trump has opened the door to potential tariffs targeting pharmaceuticals, which have so far benefited from exemptions to his sweeping levies on imports from trading partners.

He ordered an investigation launched into pharmaceutical imports, suggesting that levies could reach up to 200 percent.

The United States is a key market for the pharmaceutical industry, and AstraZeneca had already announced in April that it had begun transferring part of its European production to the United States.

"For decades Americans have been reliant on foreign supply of key pharmaceutical products," US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said in a statement.

He added that the new tariffs are focused on "ending this structural weakness".

The announcement included a new factory in Virginia, which will be the company's "largest single manufacturing investment".

Other major pharmaceutical companies, which had been exempt from tariffs for 30 years, have, in recent months, begun shifting investment and production to the United States.

© Agence France-Presse