WORK is under way on a £17 million sterling expansion project at the Portadown based pharmaceutical company Galen Holdings.
The investment was announced a year ago, and is aimed a increasing sales in mainland Europe. The group is also setting up a $67 million (£40 million) centre in Philadelphia, employing 200 people in manufacturing and clinical trials.
The investment on Portadown's Seagoe Industrial Estate is divided between a clinical trials laboratory, and a research and development unit, which will operate in conjunction with Queen's University.
Galen chairman Dr Allan McClay said that exports to the US were increasing steadily, and the project in Philadelphia was designed to service that market.
Galen employs more than 600 people in Northern Ireland, at its plant in Portadown, and at a unit in Larne.