Biocentre plan for drug plant

By Peter Ranscombe
Published on Sunday 8 January 2012 00:00

FINANCE Secretary John Swinney is this week expected to breathe fresh life into an empty drug research plant at Newhouse, in Lanarkshire, by setting up an “incubator” centre for new biotech firms.

American drugs giant Merck closed its site next to the M8 in 2010 with the loss of 250 jobs following its £30 billion takeover of Schering-Plough.

A joint venture between Roslin Biocentre in Midlothian and BioCity Nottingham is understood to be planning to use the site as a base for start-up life science companies.

While Edinburgh has several “bio-incubators” – including at Roslin and the new Edinburgh BioQuarter development at Little France – such space is in short supply in Glasgow. Many small firms currently start life at the West of Scotland Science Park, a joint venture involving Scottish Enterprise and Glasgow and Strathclyde universities.

Space at the popular development at Roslin is in high-demand, while Nottingham has built a reputation as one of the top cities in the UK for life science companies. BioCity Nottingham itself is one of Europe’s largest bio- incubators, with 70 companies employing 600 staff.

The Newhouse factory dates back to 1948 and is best known for developing some of the UK’s first contraceptive pills during the 1960s under Dutch firm Organon.

Work carried out there under Schering-Plough and Merck included research into Alzheimer’s disease, mental illnesses, Parkinson’s disease and pain relief. Merck closed 16 sites in 2010, axing about 16,000 jobs.

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