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Towards the end of 2013 the UK’s two biggest pharmaceutical firms announced major investments in new facilities and the upgrading of existing plants.

AstraZeneca in November announced it was committing £120 million to a new facility in Macclesfield, Cheshire to replace one of its two existing plants producing prostate cancer drug Zoladex.

This was followed in December by GlaxoSmithKline’s announcement that it would spend £200 million upgrading its sites at Ware in Hertfordshire and Worthing in Sussex.

The upgrades to the Ware facility will focus on new production lines for the Ellipta inhaler, used in GSK’s chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) therapy Relvar (vilanterol and umeclidinium bromide),which was recently recommended for approval in Europe.

In Worthing the money will be spent on a new bulk sterile filling line for GSK’s Augmentin (co-amoxiclav) antibiotic.

GSK’s announcement came on top of existing plans to build a £350 million biopharmaceutical manufacturing hub at its Ulverston site in Cumbria.

The plant will be GSK’s first new facility in the UK for 40 years and the firm has made it clear that the reason it is choosing to make such substantial investments in the UK is due to a new favourable tax regime, triggered by the government’s “Patent Box” mechanism.

With the British Automation and Robot Association (BARA) last month reporting that sales of industrial robots to pharmaceuticals companies grew by 116% in 2013, a stronger growth than any other sector, it is clear that pharma firms are ploughing money into their UK facilities in a way that has not been seen for many years.

But just how much of it is down to the Patent Box, and what other factors are at play?

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