Quay Pharmaceuticals sets up headquarters in Wales

Quay Pharmaceuticals is to create 54 new jobs in North Wales in a £2.7 million investment in a new headquarters and manufacturing facility.

Operations at the new site will include early stage research and development and clinical trials manufacturing for the global pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries.

The company is quitting its present site at Bromborough, Wirral, which it says has reached capacity.  It is expanding and moving operations to a new facility on Deeside Industrial Park, four times the size of its current premises, in a move supported by the Welsh Assembly Government that will also safeguard 30 relocated jobs.

Chief Executive Officer Mike Rubinstein said the range of support offered by the Assembly Government to small and medium sized businesses had made Wales an attractive proposition for Quay Pharma’s expansion.

“The support from the Welsh Assembly Government is great for a small company and of particular help in the current economic climate.  Not only does it provide advice and access to knowledge but also provides businesses with a high level of promotional and marketing support at overseas events.

“We are operating in a growing market and now have the opportunity to take advantage of this.  Our new premises will enable us to take on larger sale projects and manage contracts through to the final stage of clinical trials and we have every confidence our operation in Wales will have a long and secure future.”

Announcing the investment, Ieuan Wyn Jones, Minister for the Economy and Transport, said many of the new jobs will be graduate and post graduate posts in research and development: “I am delighted to welcome this investment in one of our key strategic industry sectors by a company that has established a global reputation and which is expanding to meet the on-going demand for its services.

“Quay Pharma is a welcome addition to the vibrant healthcare and bioscience sector we have in Wales which employs some 15,000 people and is worth around £1.3 billion annually to the Welsh economy." 

"I am pleased we have been able to provide support through the Single Investment Fund to facilitate the company’s expansion programme.”

The company's laboratories and offices at its new Flintshire base to opened in January 2010.  The manufacturing operation is due to relocate during the first quarter of this year.

-ends-

12 November, 2009