Qiagen’s investment will be an expansion of its current operations in that northern England city.
As Britain prepares to leave the European Union, the government of that country is pushing for growth in the pharma sector through investments in research and development and infrastructure.
Britain held a referendum vote in June 2016 on whether or not it should exit the European Union and a slight majority of British voters, 53 percent, favored departing the EU. Earlier this year, Prime Minister Theresa May triggered Article 50, which began the two-year countdown for Britain to leave the European Union. According to Politico, Britain has been a net receiver of science funding from the E.U. The investment strategies outlined by May are meant to rectify that.
The program championed by May has won some key backers – Merck & Co. and Germany-based diagnostics company Qiagen. Both companies have indicated planned investments in Britain, Reuters reported this morning. Neither company has confirmed the amounts they will invest in Britain, but Reuters said the Financial Times of London estimated the combined investments at more than $1 billion pounds.
Qiagen said it will create a genomics and diagnostics campus in Manchester, England. That development has the potential to create 800 jobs, Reuters said. Qiagen’s investment will be an expansion of its current operations in that northern England city. Qiagen works on DNA-based diagnostics for personalized healthcare in Manchester. The BBC said the company will begin to plan for the expansion early next year. The facility currently employs about 270 people, but the expansion will significantly grow that site. Peer Schatz, chief executive officer of Qiagen, praised the government’s planned investments. He told the BBC that those investments were “essential” to the company.
Merck’s investment will include a state-of-the-art life sciences discovery research facility that will be placed in London by 2020. Merck’s facility will focus on early bioscience discovery and entrepreneurial innovation, Reuters said. That facility is expected to employ nearly 1,000 people. Merck will create about 150 new positions for the discovery facility and shift about 800 other existing U.K. jobs to the London location, according to the repot.
Louise Houston, Merck’s managing director for the U.K. and Ireland, said the company’s investment in Britain was linked to the government’s plan to support in the pharma sector. Houston told British news agencies that Merck’s plan “presents a major opportunity for us to work in collaboration with the UK government to build on the forward thinking and ambitious industrial strategy…”
Britain’s Business Secretary Greg Clark said these two investments represented “a huge vote of confidence” in the government’s approach.
“People don’t make the investments of this scale that are for the long term if they don’t have the confidence that we are building in this country a very attractive base,” he said, according to the BBC.
