GSK is to invest £275 million at three of its UK manufacturing sites to boost production and support delivery of its latest respiratory and large molecule biological medicines. Most of these products will be for export to global markets, GSK said.
The UK drugmaker will make the investment at its facilities at Barnard Castle, Co. Durham; Montrose, Scotland; and Ware, Hertfordshire.
Andrew Witty, CEO, GSK said: ‘Today’s announcement reflects further investment to support our pharmaceutical pipeline and meet growing demand for our innovative portfolio of newly launched products.
'It is testament to our skilled UK workforce and the country’s leading position in life sciences that we are making these investments in advanced manufacturing here. From their manufacture in the UK, many of these medicines will be sent to patients around the world.’
The firm will invest £92m at Barnard Castle, which employs 1100 people on the construction of an aseptic sterile facility supporting the manufacture of existing and new biopharmaceutical assets. The site supplies nearly half a million packs of pharmaceutical products every day to 140 global markets.
Today’s announcement reflects further investment to support our pharmaceutical pipeline
At Montrose in Angus, where GSK manufactures active ingredients for respiratory, HIV and vaccine products and employees more than 450 people, the firm will invest approximately £110 million will provide a new, state-of-the-art facility for the manufacture of respiratory active ingredients.
The site in Ware, which employs 1200 people, will see investment of £74m to support further expansion of the company’s new Ellipta respiratory inhaler through additional manufacturing capacity at the site.
In addition to jobs associated with the construction of the new facilities, GSK says the investment will support current employment at these three sites and is expected to lead to the creation of new jobs.
GSK has a total of nine sites across the UK employing approximately 6,000 people.
The UK is an attractive location for investment in advanced manufacturing due to a number of factors, including the skilled workforce, technological and scientific capabilities and infrastructure, and a competitive corporate tax system, the company said. This includes the Patent Box, which encourages investment in R&D and related manufacturing in the UK by delivering a lower rate of corporation tax on profits generated from UK-owned intellectual property.