LONDON, Nov 23 (Reuters) - Britain"s Prince Charles will formally open a new 1 billion pound ($1.3 billion) AstraZeneca (AZN.L) research and development (R&D) facility on Tuesday, as the company aims to fuel the growth of its drug pipeline. AstraZeneca has supplied two billion doses of its COVID-19 vaccine, developed at Oxford University, and is also looking to bring a preventative antibody cocktail against COVID-19 to market. read more But while the company is setting up a separate division for vaccine and antibody therapies in light of the coronavirus pandemic, it has also beefed up other areas of research Earlier this year, AstraZeneca completed the $39 billion purchase of rare-disease specialist Alexion. read more "Our new Discovery Centre in Cambridge raises the bar for sustainable R&D and global collaboration across our industry," Chief Executive Pascal Soriot said in a statement. "It will allow us to break new boundaries in the understanding of disease biology, bring life-changing medicines to patients and power the next stage of our company"s growth." AstraZeneca, which has a large portfolio of treatments for diseases like cancer, heart disease and diabetes, said the centre would support research into specialised medicines and next-generation therapeutics, including gene-editing and cell therapies. Prince Charles, son of Queen Elizabeth and heir to the throne, will take a walking tour of the centre and give a short address at the opening. ($1 = 0.7454 pounds)