The 22-acre facility will pack and distribute more than 47 million doses of Pfizer medicines to 120 distribution points in more than 60 countries worldwide.
Further investment in new packaging lines and additional cold storage facilities is planned for 2011, with the volume anticipated to grow to more than 72 million by 2012.
According to Richard Blackburn, Pfizer UK’s managing director: ‘Pfizer plays a crucial role in delivering life-saving medicines to clinicians and patients not just in the UK, but right across the world. This investment in the new packaging hall at Havant demonstrates our aim to ensure this state-of-the-art facility remains a centre of expertise for cold chain distribution and packaging.’
Willetts said Pfizer’s commitment to the UK is a big win for the country’s life science and manufacturing base.
‘I’m hugely encouraged that even in these tough economic times the world’s largest research-based biopharmaceutical company has chosen the UK to make this significant investment,’ he added.
In 2009/10 the UK attracted 173 life sciences investment projects, generating nearly 8,500 jobs.
Willetts said the UK government is determined to ensure that the country has one of the leading business environments in the world for the life sciences and remains a global force in this field.
‘This investment is further evidence of the country’s strengths in the life sciences and manufacturing and the pool of highly skilled workers that the UK can offer – and is why the UK’s pharmaceutical sector is the fourth largest in the world,’ added Nick McInnes, director of UK Trade & Investment’s US network.
