Eisai to set up L75M European hub in UK

Japan's fourth-largest drugmaker, Eisai, has announced plans to establish a European strategic business hub in the UK and has selected a 14.6-acre site at the Hatfield Business Park in north west London for a new manufacturing and R&D subsidiary. This will involve an investment of about L75.0 million ($139.2 million) and create 500 jobs, with completion expected in 2008.

Eisai, which already has sales offices in the UK, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Switzerland and Sweden, considers Europe an important region for its growth and said it selected the UK to spearhead this, because of the country's innovative history in the field of life science and the fact that it is "a cluster for the pharmaceutical industry." The Japanese firm's chief executive, Haruo Naito, said that he hoped to double European revenues from the currrent 7% of group sales by 2011.