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Montrose plays an important part in the operations of biopharma giant GSK.

The international business has a long history going back to the Plough Court Pharmacy in London in 1715.

In the centuries since, it has aimed to get ahead of the diseases that impact on people’s health.

GSK’s legacy operations were developed by producing a variety of medicines and vaccines that helped to form the building blocks of today’s venture – a company that has grown from a handful of individual founders into a giant operation of 70,000 people.

The firm has been in Montrose since 1952 and celebrated the site’s 70th anniversary a couple of years ago.

When searching for a location for a new manufacturing facility, Montrose was ideal as it was flat, there was room for expansion and it was on the main route to London for ease of transportation of goods and employees from its headquarters in the capital.

GSK has around 400 staff based at its Angus location and the site plays an important role as part of the firm’s global network of manufacturing sites.

Montrose supplies what is known as active pharmaceutical ingredients, or APIs, which are main components of a medicine that make them work – in other words, the part of the medicine that is responsible for treating the condition or illness.

The company makes APIs for use in areas such as HIV and respiratory conditions.

Those APIs are supplied to other GSK  manufacturing sites around the world, which formulate them into finished medicines.  From there, they’re distributed globally.

GSK said that, as it did for everyone, Covid brought new challenges but, given the nature of the world at the Montrose site, manufacturing continued throughout the pandemic.

The group commented: “We’re incredibly proud of our colleagues who adapted and continued to deliver in these new circumstances.”

In recent years, there’s been significant investment in the Montrose site to support its cutting-edge manufacturing facilities.

For instance, the firm is in the middle of a £67 million upgrade project announced last year, and chief executive Emma Walmsley opened a £54 million facility in 2018.

Cammy Mitchell, GSK Montrose site director, said: “Every day, it is estimated that over 20 million patients from across the globe take a medicine with an ingredient that is manufactured at GSK Montrose.

“We’ve got a proud 72-year history in the town and we look forward to continuing to deliver for patients in the future.”

This article appeared in The Courier Business Supplement on 24 September 2024.