Respiratory Manufacturing Facility Opens in UK

A £56 million state of the art manufacturing facility, which has created 150 new jobs in the UK, has been opened by GSK in response to demand for its portfolio of respiratory medicines delivered by the Ellipta inhaler.

The new 4500m² facility based in Ware, was opened in April by UK Life Sciences Minister George Freeman MP and GSK Chief Executive Officer Sir Andrew Witty. This latest expansion of manufacturing at the site, with investment totalling over £100 million over the past five years, is expected to nearly double production of Ellipta inhalers to at least 37 million per year by 2017; 95% of these will be exported. 

Since 2013, over 400 additional roles will have been created at this site bringing staff numbers to more than 1200. This includes over 30 apprentice and 50 graduate roles as part of GSK’s commitment to creating highly skilled roles for young people.

Sir Andrew Witty, said, “This new facility demonstrates our commitment to manufacturing in the UK which continues to be a very positive environment for life sciences investment. We have been leaders in respiratory since the 1960s when we first began making inhalers for the treatment of respiratory diseases in Ware and it continues to be a critically important site for us, both in terms of researching and developing innovative new inhaler technology and as a world-leading manufacturing hub. We currently export Ellipta inhalers from Ware to over 74 countries and the new facility opened today will increase capacity to meet growing demand for our new portfolio of respiratory medicines worldwide.”