HEALTH Minister John Hutton painted a glowing future for Speke's Chiron Vaccines when he signalled its official £53.7m expansion.
The minister, whose family hails from Liverpool, flew in to Speke yesterday on the city's new VLM London air link to mark the start of phase four of Chiron's Boulevard industry park site.
It will add extra capacity for Chiron, the world's second biggest flu vaccine maker.
Last year the plant made 40 million flu vaccine doses and plans to produce 50 mil-lion this year. About 4,000 people in the UK alone die each year from flu.
Mr Hutton praised the 600-strong workforce and said they had a bright future: "This is a huge vote of confidence in the workforce of this leading biotech company.
"Not many people in this country realise just how important this company is for us. As a health minister I want to say that what you do here helps save lives.
"Every year people live who otherwise would not have done because of the work you do here. Every year you guys help us save more and more lives and there is only one way this business is going and that is up because we want to vaccinate more and more people."
Garston Labour MP Maria Eagle added her praise for the staff: "All the pharmaceutical companies here went through a difficult patch in the 1970s but what brought them through was the strength of their workforce.
"Investment, either from government or business is important, but without the quality of staff here these companies would not have been here."
The £53.7m investment, including Northwest Development Agency aid, follows £37.6m of investment on the site over the past five years.
Chiron Vaccines president John Lambert added: "This is testament to the commitment of all our 600 staff in Liverpool."
RSS News Feed