Leading biotech firms head for the UK

By Ray Cooling, London Press Service
12 December 2005

Science UK: Britain’s reputation for first-class biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry facilities and staff is attracting more interest from companies abroad. Pictured is a researcher working at Gilead Sciences, one of the world’s largest biotechnology firms, that decided to relocate its European centre from Paris to London. Photo By Gilead Sciences.

Leading companies in the global biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry are deciding that the United Kingdom is the place to be.

One recent example is California-based Gilead Sciences Inc., the world’s third-largest biotechnology company by market capitalisation, that decided to relocate its European headquarters from Paris to London.

Gilead is a leader in the development and commercialisation of therapies to treat life-threatening diseases such as HIV and hepatitis. It is moving its European medical, legal, finance and marketing functions into offices at Stockley Park, near Heathrow airport.

The company is in a phase of rapid growth, driven by the success of its anti-retroviral therapies, and felt that this was the right time to establish its European headquarters in the UK. For the full article go here

Other London Press Service articles this week:

• Worldwide demand leads to new UK plant  - A top Japanese glass and chemicals company is to build a new plant in the United Kingdom to make an ETFE resin that is used as an insulation material for electrical wires in automobiles, aircraft and robotics, as well as many other uses.
• Secret of the 'Da Vinci Code building' revealed  - What has been described as the greatest moment in the Eden Project’s history since the construction of a group of the world’s biggest plant biomes has dawned with the opening of a monumental new education centre known as The Core.
• Success on UK high streets for world’s top labels - "No one can afford to ignore the high street now," says top retail analyst Sally Bain, of UK consultancy The Chambers. Dramatic changes in the UK retail industry over the last few years have seen high-street multiples giving designer boutiques a run for their money, said Ms Bain, resulting in the development of elite fashion ranges for major chain stores such as Debenhams and Marks & Spencer. These collections are invariably limited in stock, higher priced (but still affordable), well made and 'fashion-forward'.
• Energy giant expands UK interests  - A German energy company that holds the biggest single stake of any company in the United Kingdom’s power market has further expanded by acquiring Caledonian Oil & Gas Limited (COGL) in a transaction worth 470 million pounds sterling.