Scotland wins £100m GSK investment By PETER RANSCOMBE Published on Thursday 22 March 2012 10:01 DRUGS maker GlaxoSmithKline today unveiled plans to create 100 jobs north of the Border as it pumps £100 million into its Irvine and Montrose factories. GSK chief executive Sir Andrew Witty said the Chancellor's announcement of a "patent box" - which introduces a lower rate of corporation tax on profits generated from UK-owned intellectual property - had "transformed" the company's view of investing in the UK. The pharmaceuticals giant will also build a factory at Ulverston in Cumbria - its first facility to be constructed in the UK for 40 years - and it will invest in its plant at Barnard Castle in County Durham. GSK, which already employs 15,000 people in Britain with almost 6,000 in manufacturing, will create a total of 1,000 jobs across the UK as a result of the spending spree. The firm said construction on the £350m project at Ulverston is expected to begin in 2014-15, dependent on planning consents, and that it may double investment at the site to £700m if there is a further improvement in the "environment for innovation." There are currently 240 GSK staff at Ulverston involved in the manufacturing of key ingredients for antibiotics. Witty said the Chancellor's "patents box" ensured that the "medicines of the future will not only be discovered, but also continue to be made here in Britain." The additional £100m of funding at the company's two sites in Scotland includes the production at Montrose of the key materials for GSK's portfolio of respiratory medicines. It will also be the first of GSK's UK sites to participate in the company's vaccine manufacturing supply chain. At Irvine, GSK will increase production capacity for antibiotics as it looks to keep pace with growing demand in emerging markets. There will be £80m invested at its sites in Ware in Hertfordshire, to increase manufacturing capacity for its next-generation respiratory inhalation device, and at Barnard Castle, to establish a dermatology manufacturing centre of excellence. Witty added: "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." Industry leaders were quick to back the GSK plan. Glyn Edwards, interim chief executive at the BioIndustry Association trade body, said: "GSK's confirmation that it will build a biopharmaceutical manufacturing facility in the UK is a fantastic boost for the UK's life sciences sector. The investment recognises that the UK is one of the world's leading locations for life sciences discovery, development and manufacturing and that recent changes to the corporate tax system make the UK an increasingly attractive place for investment. "GSK acknowledged that this investment is on the back of the UK government's "patent box" legislation, which was first proposed in the BIA-supported Bioscience Innovation and Growth Team's Review and Refresh of Bioscience 2015 report." Chancellor George Osborne welcomed the announcement, citing it as proof the UK government was improving the country's economy. "You have GSK, one of the world's biggest companies, one of the great British success stories, saying the Budget has changed their view of Britain as a place to invest," he told BBC Breakfast. They're going to create a thousand jobs here. Now, surely my responsibility as the country's Chancellor is to get the economy moving, to get jobs created, and when big companies say that about Britain, people should sit up and notice that we are changing the British economy for the better. Full details of GSK's investment are available on the GSK website