After meeting AstraZeneca's Site General Manager Simon Proffitt who updated Mr Reed on the medicines research and development company's current activities and plans Mr Reed was taken on a tour of the site with AstraZeneca's new £42 million Process R&D laboratories being the main feature.

These facilities, which are among the most modern medicines research laboratories in Europe and were officially opened last September, give a top class working environment for scientists to develop processes to provide active chemical materials for clinical trials, an important stage in drug development.

Andy Reed said: "I very much enjoyed my visit to AstraZeneca to see how things are progressing. AstraZeneca is one of the biggest employers in Loughborough and through the research work it carries out also does a great deal to help the local economy. It is very important that we continue to encourage local companies and listen to the concerns they have so we can respond to the current challenges which they face."

"This was a most useful visit and I look forward to meeting them again in the near future so we can move Loughborough forward together."

"I am very pleased to see Andy Reed visit us again and I am sure he benefited from his tour," said Mr Proffitt. "More than £250 million has been spent in the last 14 years on upgrading the complex to provide a high quality environment for medicines discovery and development and I am delighted at the local MP's continual interest in the company and the essential work we do here in the fight to treat the illnesses of the world."

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