Japan's Eisai has completed construction of a European Knowledge Centre in the UK, which could bring up to 250 jobs to the region. It's part of a £100 million effort to launch a strategic base giving Eisai it's first manufacturing facilities in Europe.
In addition to the manufacturing capabilities, the project includes a research laboratory and offices. Eisai will move its R&D activities, drug production and marketing to the new headquarters, where 500 people are expected to be employed. Half of those will be newly-created positions.
In a separate announcement, Eisai said that it's planning to submit an NDA for a new formulation of it's Alzheimer's drug Aricept in August or September. The existing version of Aricept makes up 40 percent of the company's sales, and will be going off-patent next year.
- read the Business Weekly report [1]
- see this report [2] on Aricept
Related Articles:
Eisai tells Pfizer to kiss Aricept goodbye [3]
Eisai inks deal for epilepsy drug [4]
TorreyPines sells Alzheimer's rights to Eisai [5]
Links:
[1] http://www.businessweekly.co.uk/2009070135126/life-sciences/over-250-new-jobs-at-japanese-pharma-s-new-hq.html
[2] http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssHealthcareNews/idUST23571420090702
[3] http://www.fiercepharma.com/story/eisai-tells-pfizer-kiss-aricept-goodbye/2009-05-11
[4] http://www.fiercebiotech.com/story/eisai-inks-95m-euro-deal-epilepsy-drug/2009-02-19
[5] http://www.fiercebiotech.com/story/torreypines-sells-alzheimers-rights-eisai/2008-11-10