Warwick Emanuel PR: Press release
Quotient Bioresearch to invest £15m in new high technology facility
Quotient Bioresearch Limited (‘Quotient’), a leading provider of drug development services, today (26 June 2009) announces that it is to invest up to £15m in new high-technology laboratories in Cardiff to serve the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries.
Quotient has acquired the Custom Preparations Business of GE Healthcare, which is based in the Whitchurch area of the city. The acquisition involves the transfer to Quotient of 75 scientists and other GE Healthcare employees and the company plans to recruit up to a further 40 support and other staff at its new site in Trident Park.
Quotient Bioresearch is a subsidiary of Quotient Bioscience, a specialist technology company with many years’ experience in providing services to pharmaceutical and biotechnology clients. Many of its activities are critical to the successful development of new drugs. The Quotient Bioscience group is currently headquartered in Cambridgeshire and employs 505 people in the UK.
Chairman and chief executive Paul Cowan said, “We are pleased to have reached this agreement with GE Healthcare. We will create a state-of-the art radiochemicals facility in Cardiff, keeping a high-technology industry in Wales. The agreement will also secure jobs of highly skilled local workers in this specialist sector and create additional quality employment opportunities over the next two to three years.
“We will equip our new facility with world class technology and operate to the highest environmental standards, well within regulatory frameworks. We aim to make Cardiff a European leader in this vital healthcare service, which is of great importance to the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors and to the successful development of new drug treatments provided to people with health problems.”
Mr Cowan said that detailed discussions have been held with the Welsh Assembly Government, Cardiff City Council, Environment Agency Wales and other regulatory agencies. Quotient is to occupy an existing building at Trident Park, formerly occupied by Nippon Electric Glass Ltd.
Quotient’s acquisition and planned investment was assisted by International Business Wales, the inward investment arm of the Welsh Assembly Government, and has been welcomed by First Minister Rhodri Morgan. He said “Quotient Bioscience’s acquisition of this business is a very welcome development. It not only protects a number of highly specialised jobs, it will further develop this high technology sector in Wales. It highlights Wales’s ability to attract world-leading companies that see the potential of doing science based business here.”
Quotient’s new facility will be located alongside the proposed Viridor waste-to-energy scheme at Trident Park. Potential opportunities to acquire renewable energy from Viridor may be an added benefit as Quotient moves forward.
Quotient says it will keep local people informed with detailed information about the development in coming weeks.
-Ends-
Notes to editors:
Quotient Bioscience was formed in 2007 by Paul Cowan, former chief financial officer of Inveresk Research Group, Inc.
The company acquired HFL Ltd, GR Micro, Alba Bioscience Ltd, BioDynamics Research Ltd and Pharmaceutical Profiles Ltd between 2007 and 2008, reorganising into three principal busines units – Quotient Bioresearch, HFL Sport Science and Alba Bioscience.
Quotient Bioresearch has sites in Cambridgeshire, Northamptonshire, Nottingham and Edinburgh and brings together drug development expertise from HFL Limited (established in the early 1960s), GR Micro (established in 1983), BioDynamics Research Limited (established in 1992), Pharmaceutical Profiles (established 1990) and Inveresk Clinical Research (established in 1992).
HFL Sport Science, a trading name and integral part of Quotient Bioresearch, is the world's leading provider of drug surveillance research and testing services for sport, and operates from our Cambridgeshire site.
Alba Bioscience was originally established in the 1940s, with the current organisation formed in 1999 from the merger of two specialised NHS manufacturing units in Scotland. Alba now supplies over 30 countries with vital health care products.
Press Contacts: Quotient Bioscience Wales press office (Warwick Emanuel PR Ltd)
Tel: 02920 556143
Email: info@wepr.co.uk
