The island of Puerto Rico, a US dependency in the Caribbean, is fast becoming one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical manufacturing centres as the major industry players gravitate to cheaper locations.

The island’s ambition to host the major drug manufacturing companies was given a significant boost when Amgen, one of the world’s largest biotech companies, announced in late March that it is to invest $800m over the next three to five years to create a biotechnology manufacturing centre.

The development will be based on the expansion of the company’s existing facilities at Juncos in eastern Puerto Rico. The new centre will create around 600 jobs, increasing Amgen’s local workforce to about 1000.

Speaking during a site visit to Juncos, Amgen chairman and CEO Kevin Sharer said that the company had chosen Puerto Rico for many reasons, “including the quality of people in the region, the existing business climate, Amgen’s 10-year track record in Juncos, the outstanding quality and compliance record the site has achieved and the excellent relationship Amgen has experienced with the government, community and academia”.

He said that Amgen has been growing worldwide and the rising demand for new and existing products had required the increase in the company’s manufacturing capacity.

Amgen has also donated $100,000 to the University of Puerto Rico for the Amgen Biotechnology Learning Center, to help with recruitment and education of staff. Amgen’s $800m investment in Puerto Rico comes as part of the company’s $1.5bn capital spending budget for 2003.

Charles Piggott