GSK to invest another £38m in Singapore facility

BRITISH pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) will invest another £38 million (S$80.1 million) in its antibiotic manufacturing plant on Quality Road in Singapore, it said on Thursday.

The Quality Road plant is GSK's sole production site for amoxicillin, the active compound used in the manufacture of antibiotics. This latest investment comes on top of GSK's initial investment of S$60 million that it committed in 2012.

According to GSK, the additional investment will be used to build another "downstream isolation facility" for its enzymatic manufacturing facility on Quality Road.

"This will increase production by 50 per cent and help the company meet the growing demand for antibiotics in emerging markets," GSK said in a statement.

Yeoh Keat Chuan, managing director of the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB), said: "This project, which is part of the GSK-EDB 10-year manufacturing roadmap, is aligned with Singapore's vision to become a key site for research, development and industrialisation of cutting edge pharmaceutical manufacturing technologies. This will further enhance the efficiency and competitiveness of Singapore."