GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has opened a new £44-million ($57 million) manufacturing plant to support vaccine production in Montrose, Scotland. The facility will manufacture sterile aluminum salts for vaccines for tetanus, pneumonia, diphtheria, and whooping cough. The announcement was from the Scottish government.

The new facility is expected to be fully operational in 2019 and includes a microbiology laboratory. The salts were previously sourced outside Scotland, and GSK has chosen the Montrose site to produce these salts, which will supply GSK’s vaccines sites in France, Belgium, and Singapore.

“With this new facility, we’ll be making a key ingredient for approximately 70% of our vaccines portfolio, protecting against diseases such as pneumonia, tetanus, diphtheria and whooping cough,” said GSK Montrose Site Director Les Thomson, in a statement.

The opening of the new facility follows GSK’s recent announcement of a further £29-million ($37-million) investment to support the manufacture of medicines for respiratory illnesses at Montrose, which has brought the overall investment in new manufacturing in Montrose and its antibiotics operation at Irvine, Scotland to nearly £342 million ($441 million) since 2012.

The recent investment in Montrose follows an announcement by GSK in July 2017 for plans to adjust its UK manufacturing network, which includes a potential sale of its cephalosporins antibiotics business and associated manufacturing, the closure of a consumer healthcare manufacturing site, the nixing of a planned biopharmaceutical manufacturing facility, and an investment in a manufacturing site for respiratory and HIV medicines (including recent investment at the Montrose site). 

Source: Scottish government and the First Minister of Scotland