GlaxoSmithKline is to invest £500 million in new U.K. manufacturing facilities in Ulverston, Montrose and Irvine, creating 1,000 jobs in the process.
The U.K. government's announcement of a lower rate of corporation tax on profits from U.K.-owned intellectual property – the so-called "patent box" – was key to GlaxoSmithKline PLC confirming on March 22 that it would invest more than £500 million ($793 million) in manufacturing in the U.K., creating 1,000 new jobs in the country at the same time.
These investments will include the first manufacturing facility to be built in the U.K. by GSK in 40 years – a biopharmaceutical manufacturing facility at its existing site in Ulverston, Cumbria – and further investments at the company's two manufacturing sites in Scotland, in Montrose and Irvine.
Because the idea of setting up a patent box first was put forward by the previous Labor government, there always was a danger that it would be dropped for any number of political reasons. However, a day after the U.K. government's 2012 budget statement on March 21, which confirmed the patent box would come into operation in April 2013, GSK announced its £500 million U.K. manufacturing commitment.
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