Abbot opens new

HRH The Duke of Kent joined Miles D. White, chairman and ceo of Abbott, and Joseph M. Nemmers, senior vice president of diagnostic operations at Abbott, to officially open the company's new biotechnology facility at its Murex Biotech location in Dartford, Kent, UK, on 25 April.

The openings are part of Abbott's €230m expansion plan in Europe to meet the increasing global demand for diagnostic testing. The £39 million investment makes the company's Dartford facility a key international manufacturing site for diagnostics tests covering a wide range of diseases and medical conditions.

'The Dartford site is already equipped with some of the world's leading diagnostic technologies,' said Nemmers. 'This investment allows us to provide the additional capacity required to service Abbott's global diagnostics business, which accounts for more than 50% of diagnostics sales.'

Dartford plays a key role in Abbott's global operations, manufacturing a wide range of tests for infectious diseases including hepatitis and HIV under the Murex brand. The new biotechnology facility adds capacity to manufacture antigen and antibodies used in testing for medical conditions such as cancer, cardiovascular, fertility/pregnancy, metabolic, transplant and thyroid diseases. These tests support several diagnostic instruments, including the ARCHITECT, AxSYM and IMx Systems, which are used by hospitals, physician offices and reference laboratories throughout the world.

The expansion added 8,268 square metres (89,000 square feet) to the existing 12,077 square metre (130,000 square feet) facility.

Abbott is a global leader in in vitro diagnostics and offers a broad range of innovative instrument systems and tests across key segments of the global diagnos-tics market, including hospitals, reference labs, blood banks, physician offices, clinics and consumers. Immunodiagnostics, the science of measuring biochemical reactions to detect diseases and other medical conditions and assess the general health of patients, is a core component of the company's medical products business. The company employs more than 60,000 people and markets its products in more than 130 countries.