Glaxo invests £500m in UK manufacturing

The investment across GSK's manufacturing sites will increase production of key active ingredients for its pharmaceutical products and vaccines. The company announced the selection of Ulverston in Cumbria as the location for the first new GSK manufacturing facility to be built in the UK for almost 40 years (artist's impression pictured). Investment will also be made at the company's two manufacturing sites in Scotland at Montrose and Irvine. In total, it is anticipated these investments will create up to 1,000 new jobs over the lifetime of the projects and will also benefit the wider construction industry and the companies in GSK's UK supply chain. GSK said the investments follow confirmation by the government in the Budget yesterday that it will implement a 'patent box' to encourage investment in R&D and related manufacturing in the UK, by introducing a lower rate of corporation tax on profits generated from UK-owned intellectual property. GSK's CEO Sir Andrew Witty said: "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." Prime Minister David Cameron said the investment showed why the government was "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". The site selected at Ulverston is for new £350m biopharmaceutical manufacturing facility on which work is scheduled to begin in 2014/15. It will then take at least six years before the plant is fully operational. GSK also announced today it is considering further significant manufacturing investment at Ulverston which could double the total investment at the site to approximately £700m and create further jobs in the longer term, depending on continued improvements in the environment for innovation in the UK.