Home Page Haverhill News

AN AMERICAN drug company is expanding in Haverhill, a move which could create up to 200 more jobs.
Genzyme, manufacturer of therapeutic and diagnostic products, says it is expanding to meet demand for its "potential blockbuster" drug Renagel.
The company, in Hollands Road, already employs 120 people in Haverhill and has started construction on a new manufacturing plant for Sevelamer, the raw material that makes the drug Renagel.
Renagel controls the levels of phosphate in the blood of dialysis patients.
The firm says increasing demand has forced the expansion and it will be able to produce 500 tons of Sevelamer instead of the 50 tons it produces now.
The programme is costing £55m and the new plant will include a new quality control laboratory, as well as a tableting and warehouse facility. It is expected to be operational from September.
To emphasise the opportunities that the company presents for Haverhill, key public figures and members of the borough council were invited to view the construction in progress.
Derek Redhead, the leader of St Edmundsbury Borough Council, was positive about the impact of the company on Haverhill.
He said: "I think it is a marvellous development and it can only herald the success of Haverhill as an industrial centre.
"The new building will surely show to other would-be developers that Haverhill has a lot to offer. We could do with a few more."
Simon Cousins, the vice-president of the Haverhill operations for Genzyme, was also enthusiastic.
He said: "Latest figures, based on a sharp increase in prescriptions and other data, have encouraged us to raise our revenue guidance for 2001 to US $120-130m from $110-120m. Sales last year were $56m.
"This new data reinforces our expectations that Renagel will become a billion-dollar product in the next ten years.
"It also endorses Haverhill's emerging worldclass status in the field of pharmaceutical manufacturing."

PHOTO CAPTION: Meeting demand... from left, Simon Cousins, vice-president of Genzyme's Haverhill operations, James Barr, political secretary to the Shadow Foreign Secretary, Derek Redhead, St Edmundsbury Borough Council leader, Margaret Warwick, borough council Planning Committee chairman, county councillor Maggie Lee and West Suffolk MP Richard Spring look at the company's plans for expansion, whihc could create up to 200 new jobs for the town.