Biopharmaceutical services company Quintiles has underlined its commitment to the UK as a base for its clinical, commercial, consulting and capital solutions with the official opening of its new European headquarters in Reading, UK.
Quintiles previously ran its European operations from a UK site in Bracknell, Berkshire. More than 500 staff members have relocated from three separate offices to the new state-of-the-art facility at Green Park, Reading, just off the M4 motorway and within 30 minutes of Heathrow Airport.
The company employs more than 2,000 people in the UK overall and more than 9,000 across Europe, Middle East and Africa, the territories that will be managed from the Green Park site.
The new facility is the latest manifestation of a string of Quintiles investments in the UK over recent years. The US-based company opened a laboratory and office facility in Edinburgh, Scotland during 2009 and completed the expansion of its Phase I facility at Guy’s Hospital, London in March 2010.
Last June, a new clinical, research facility opened at Queen Mary, University of London, the first of Quintiles’ international network of Prime Sites.
Across the spectrum
Speaking at the opening ceremony for the Green Park HQ, Quintiles founder, chairman and chief executive officer Dennis Gillings stressed the continued importance of Europe, and the UK in particular, to the global market and Quintiles’ strategy of investing in innovation and quality across the spectrum of drug development and commercialisation.
“I am proud to extend our strategic commitment to Europe, Middle East and Africa with this regional headquarters investment,” Gillings stated.
“With such a wealth of scientific, medical and commercial expertise in the UK, the move has encouraged more cross-discipline collaboration to better serve Quintiles’ customers and power them forward in the fast-morphing world of biopharma.”
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health Lord Howe also took the opportunity to fly the flag. Quintiles’ move to Reading “shows that the UK is an attractive environment for international pharmaceutical companies to invest in”, he said.
