Drugmaker GSK has announced a £22billion investment in the US to coincide with Donald Trump’s state visit to the UK.
The London-listed pharmaceuticals giant said it would invest $30billion in research and development and supply chain infrastructure over the next five years.
But boss Emma Walmsley insisted GSK was not turning its back on the UK.
She said: ‘This week’s state visit brings together two countries that have led the world in science and healthcare innovation. We are proud to be part of both.’
The firm will ‘continue to invest in a significant manufacturing base’ and more than £1.5billion in R&D every year in the UK, she added.
The US investment includes £880million to be spent on projects including a new factory for asthma medicines in Pennsylvania and AI technology to be used at sites in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Maryland, and Montana.
American dreams: GSK, led by boss Emma Walmsley (pictured), has announced a £22bn investment in the US
But it comes at a troubling time for the British pharmaceutical industry.
AstraZeneca has halted its planned £200million investment in a research facility in Cambridge, suspending plans for 1,000 new jobs.
And last week US drugs giant Merck, which operates as MSD in the UK, scrapped a £1billion London research centre and axed 125 jobs.
The UK president of AstraZeneca, Tom Keith-Roach, told MPs yesterday that the UK is an ‘increasingly challenging’ place for medicine innovation.
Earlier this month, the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) warned that Britain was falling behind rivals on the proportion of healthcare spending allocated to developing medicines.
It comes amid a bitter row over an NHS rebate scheme under which drugs firms must repay 23.5 per cent of the money they make selling drugs to the NHS back to the Government.
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