GSK's New £25M API Plant In Montrose Gets Green Light

GlaxoSmithKline’s plans for a new Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API) manufacturing facility at its Cobden Street plant in Montrose, U.K., has received approval from the Angus Council.

Angus’ development standards committee was given details of the three-story high, 900 square meters production plant set to be built on a reused brownfield site. The new GSK facility will have the capacity to produce 1,500 kg of pharmaceutical ingredients annually and will supply the active ingredients needed for GSK’s next generation respiratory drugs, such as Relvar, Anoro, and Incruse. The company’s Cobden street site originally produced ingredients for GSK’s chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) medicines, such as Becotide, Serevent, and Seretide.

The company announced the plans for its £25 million Montrose facility last year. The committee offered no objections to the plans, and the company’s plans reassured that the facility would not harm air quality or cause issues with traffic.

The company announced at the time that it will open 25 new jobs, bringing the site’s workforce to over 750. The expansion is estimated to contribute up to £1 billion annually to the local economy. A spokesman from GSK said, “This is a very important development for the Montrose site… This expansion enhances Montrose’s position in the GSK network, secures a number of vital new jobs, and is a significant boost to the local economy.” Plans for a groundbreaking ceremony later this month are in the works, while recruitment is set to begin by the end of 2015.

Roger Connor, president of global manufacturing and supply for GSK, announced earlier, “Our people here in Montrose manufacture the primary ingredients that then go forward to be put in inhalers, pills, capsules, and injections for patients across the globe. Montrose will work alongside our sister site in Singapore to meet international demand for some of the world's most important medicines.”

The new plant will start to become visible from February next year and is expected to be completed in mid-2016.