AstraZeneca announces the opening of one of Europe's most technically advanced Pharmaceutical Development Facilities. The £45 million state-of-the-art facility is dedicated to providing supplies of potential new medicines for world-wide clinical trials and to developing the manufacturing processes required for eventual transfer to large-scale production.

Lord Hunt, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health, opened the building in the presence of guests from academia, the pharmaceutical industry, the local business community and international AstraZeneca staff. Lord Hunt said: "I very much like this new facility. Millions of people, including children, suffer from illnesses such as asthma, arthritis and cancer. Major research facilities, like this, offer potential for future treatments that will make major improvements to their quality of life, not just in the UK but world-wide. The substantial investment made by AstraZeneca is good news for the UK and an important addition to the UK's research and development base."

Lord Hunt was accompanied by Dr Tom McKillop, Chief Executive of AstraZeneca and Pro-Chancellor of Leicester University. Dr McKillop said "These new facilities will improve AstraZeneca's ability to develop, manufacture and dispense promising new medicines for world-wide clinical trials. The £45 million investment at Charnwood is the latest to come on stream in the UK in support of AstraZeneca's global R&D programme which has invested over £5 billion in pharmaceutical research and development since the company was formed in 1999."

The building is the latest addition to the £250 million investment in scientific facilities at the Loughborough medicines research and development company, which has created a scientific campus with some of the best research and development facilities in Europe.

A total of 1,200 staff work at the site which focuses on discovering and developing new treatments for respiratory and inflammatory diseases including; asthma, rhinitis, emphysema, chronic bronchitis, rheumatoid and osteoarthritis. However, the new facility may be used as a resource for the research and development outputs of AstraZeneca world-wide, where new treatments for cancer, heart disease, central nervous system disease, infection, gastrointestinal disease, pain control and anaesthesia are being developed.

The new building replaces outdated facilities and provides significant greater capabilities. The building meets or exceeds the current and anticipated future requirements of world-wide medicine licensing agencies, including the UK Medicines Control Agency and the US Food and Drug Administration. The building reflects the attractive design features of the campus and links with other buildings on the site to allow easy communication and team-work between staff.

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