First Minister Alex Salmond to meet Aptuit boss as 340 jobs to go

• Alex Salmond

The First Minister, along with Finance Secretary John Swinney, will enter discussions with Aptuit executive chairman and CEO Tim Tyson to discuss plans to shut down two hi-tech laboratories.

Last weekend, the Evening News revealed that the Connecticut-based drug developer intends to close its Riccarton and Livingston facilities over the next 12 months with the loss of around 340 jobs.

Aptuit blamed the decision on "the continued worldwide economic downturn and pharmaceutical market dynamics".

Speaking at First Minister's Questions yesterday, Edinburgh Pentlands MSP David McLetchie voiced fears that the closure of the plants would mean Scottish jobs were being exported to Italy, where Aptuit recently acquired a 700,000sq ft, state-of-the-art facility from GlaxoSmithKline.

He urged Mr Salmond's government to "ascertain whether these closures are a result of a decision to relocate these research functions to Verona in Italy, and if so, why the company considers this preferable to sustaining this aspect of its business here in Scotland?"

In response, Mr Salmond said: "I was disappointed to learn of Aptuit's decision to reduce the Scottish workforce.

"Our understanding of the decision is (that this is] due to global restructuring of the company's worldwide business services.

"The cabinet secretary for finance and I will meet Tim Tyson in the new year, and may also meet with Scottish Enterprise and Scottish Development International officials.

"We'll continue to work with Aptuit's senior staff in Scotland and explore potential other options."

The work carried out at the Livingston and Riccarton plants is primarily early development and preclinical work, including toxicology studies.

Aptuit was founded in 2004 and acquired a set of research centres from Quintiles, the US drug-testing group, in 2005. It announced it was building a 20 million laboratory complex housing 200 highly-qualified scientists in Bathgate in 2006.

The Bathgate pharmaceutical research centre carries out clinical operations and consulting, including analyses and development of drugs for diseases such as diabetes and cancer for biotechnology companies.

Mr McLetchie later told the Evening News: "We need to pull out all the stops to keep the plants open. We should not just be accepting closure as a fact."

He added: "Is there an Italian connection to this decision? This has been an expanding company up until now."

Aptuit insiders have claimed that the Riccarton plant, where the majority of the firm's employees are based, has suffered from lack of investment in new equipment and had become a "problem site".

One senior source said: "Verona have this new kit and there would have to be millions spent to replace instrumentation and many months, if not years, to validate new kit before Riccarton could be a leading facility again.

"I think the jobs here have been lost to Verona. Aptuit are looking to get rid of a problem site for the same reasons they closed the Kansas City preclinical site in 2006."