Intertek expands Hexagon Tower lab
The product testing company has opened a 10,000 sq ft biopharmaceutical lab in Hexagon Tower in Blackley, taking its total space in the vertical science park to 30,000 sq ft.
The Manchester lab will assist drug companies with safety and efficacy testing of medicines for heart disease, cancer-related diseases such as leukemia or melanoma and other chronic ailments.
Intertek currently operates six other sites across Manchester, and provide testing, inspection and certification services to the beauty product, consumer healthcare, chemicals, oil and gas and food industries.
Rob van Dorp, chief executive of Intertek, said: “Based in the heart of the Northern Powerhouse, this new Manchester lab is well placed to respond quickly and effectively to global client demands. Among the exciting projects now starting at this lab is work on a new class of monoclonal antibody therapeutics for previously untreatable diseases, as well as testing of other complex vaccines and medicines such as antibody drug conjugates, which offer great potential for a range of difficult-to-treat cancers.”
Hexagon Tower was originally built in the 1970s and was first occupied by Imperial Chemical Industries before being used by AstraZeneca and Avecia, prior to becoming a science park following its purchase by La Salle Investment Management in 2008. Since the acquisition LaSalle has invested £2m in modernising the facility.
The building is part of the national Business Environments for Science and Technology Network, the largest portfolio of privately owned science parks in the UK.
