Science minister opens new Pfizer facility in Havant
pharmafile | March 13, 2012 | News story | Manufacturing and Production | Havant, Pfizer, R&D, Tucker, Willetts
Science minister David Willetts has opened Pfizer’s new state-of-the-art cold storage facility at its site in Havant.
The new £7 million cold storage facility adds to the £42 million investment made at the site since 2008.
The facility specialises in cold chain packaging and supply: providing temperature sensitive vaccines and injectable medicines to over 120 destinations around the world.
Pfizer is keen to show its continued investment in the UK, after announcing last year that it would be shutting R&D site in Sandwich, Kent, with the loss of around 2,400 jobs.
Since then, however, the firm has said it will keep around 650 of these on the new site, which has been named as a new ‘discovery park’ to help bring in new business.
Science minister David Willetts, said: “The UK is home to a world-leading life sciences industry, underpinned by an excellent research base and innovative businesses.
“This £7 million investment from Pfizer will deliver a cutting edge cold storage facility and comes on top of £26.3 million already invested in a state-of-the-art biotechnology packaging facility – which I had the privilege to open in 2010.
“This reflects the enormous importance Pfizer attaches to its UK operations and its ability to serve the global pharmaceutical community.”
The cold storage facility is one of the largest in Europe, storing up to 38.4 million doses of important temperature sensitive vaccines and injectable medicines which are then distributed to clinicians and patients in the UK and around the world.
The Havant site, based on the south coast near Portsmouth, also has a new high speed vaccines packaging line which is believed to be the fastest complex syringe packaging line in the world.
Jon Tucker, Havant site lead, said: “This new facility is at the height of cold chain storage technology and is vital in keeping medicines at the correct temperature that maintains their integrity ready for supply to our customers.
“The site is recognised as a ‘Centre of Excellence for cold chain distribution and packaging’, we have a specialist team here that have developed technologies that are leading the way in this complex area of supply and logistics.”
Ben Adams
Related Content
ANGLE’s Parsortix system used in new cancer biology research
ANGLE has announced three new peer-reviewed publications demonstrating the use of its Parsortix circulating tumour …
NICE recommends Pfizer’s new once-weekly treatment for haemophilia B on NHS
Walton Oaks, 21st May 2025 – Pfizer Ltd announced today that the National Institute for Health and Care …
Moderna expands use of AI-ready R&D platform
Moderna has expanded its partnership with Benchling, a cloud-based research platform, to support its broader …
