GSK Announces New £500M Manufacturing Investment

PUBLISHED: 23 Mar 2012 @ 00:51 | Comments (0) |

GlaxoSmithKline (LSE:GSK), the pharmaceutical giant, announced today that it will be investing £500M in manufacturing, including a brand new £350M manufacturing facility in Ulverston, Cumbria. The remaining investment will be used for improvements to existing factories in Scotland and England, where key ingredients in the company’s vaccines are manufactured.

The investment, strengthening inputs of many of the company’s widely used pharmaceutical products, will do well to integrate the company’s U.K. resources into its existing supply chain.

The news follows yesterday’s Budget, which implemented a new “patent box.” The patent box will cut corporate taxes on profits made from U.K. owned intellectual property, in a move to encourage investment in research and development and related manufacturing. CEO Andrew Wyatt confirmed that yesterday’s Budget, along with continuing government action to cut corporate tax across the board, were major driving forces behind the decision.

The move, which will create 1,000 jobs, was hailed by PM David Cameron.

“This is excellent news, a major investment that will create many highly skilled jobs and provide a great boost to the economy. It shows why we are right to cut business tax and focus on making the UK a dynamic and competitive place that can attract exactly this type of high tech investment,” said Cameron.

The company added that it may double the investment in coming years.

Executive Comments

GlaxoSmithKline CEO Sir Andrew Witty:

“The introduction of the patent box has transformed the way in which we view the UK as a location for new investments, ensuring that the medicines of the future will not only be discovered, but can also continue to be made here in Britain. Consequently, we can confirm that we will build GSK’s first new UK factory for almost 40 years and that we will make other substantial capital investments in our British manufacturing base. In total, this will create up to 1,000 new jobs over the lifetime of the projects. We are also actively considering other investments in our UK manufacturing network which would create further jobs and reinforce the UK’s international competitiveness and as a world leader in life sciences.”

Company Spotlight

GlaxoSmithKline is a leading pharmaceutical and healthcare companies based in the United Kingdom with branches in more than 100 countries around the world.

References
↑ GSK News Release
↑ BBC News
↑ Company Profile

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