If the merger of pharmaceutical giants Glaxo Wellcome and SmithKline Beecham is completed it will have implications for the UK facilities of the combined company. The news that German chemical company BASF is moving the headquarters of its drugs business from Ludwigshafen to London adds another twist to the restructuring of the pharmaceutical industry.

It is likely that there will be some rationalisation of Glaxo Wellcome/SKB sites and services and there may even be the opportunity for a major outsourcing deal. A number of FM suppliers have contracts with the two companies, including Rentokil Initial Management Services, which works on Glaxo Wellcome's Speke site near Liverpool and Serco.

Glaxo Wellcome currently has its headquarters in Greenford, Middlesex, a site that covers 23 acres and accommodates 1,500 people. Operational departments are located across the country, with a concentration at Stockley Park West, near Heathrow (1,400 employees) and sites at Ulverston, Cumbria; Barnard Castle, County Durham; Ware, Herts; Dartford, Kent; Merseyside; in Angus, Scotland; Stevenage, Herts and Beckenham, Kent.

SmithKline Beecham currently operates from its HQ in Brentford, London, with a Research & Development Facility in Harlow. SmithKline employs just over 2,000 staff.

The new company will be called Glaxo SmithKline,with Jean-Pierre Garnier of SmithKline as Chief Executive. Although headquartered in London, possibly at the current Glaxo Wellcome HQ in Greenford, Glaxo SmithKline will be largely run from a new operational US base, possibly in New Jersey.

The merger is expected to be completed sometime in the summer. For more information visit:

www.glaxowellcome.co.uk
www.sb.com