The UK pharmaceutical manufacturer confirmed it has sought guidance from the council’s planning department this week, telling us “we are at the scoping stage ahead of a full planning application.”
Reports in the UK press suggest the new facility will produce salbutamol, the API in GSK's asthma treatment Ventolin.
The Montrose facility has been making drug ingredients for six decades. In 2003, GSK almost sold the facility to Akzo Nobel.
However, that deal fell through and GSK changed its plan a few years later after failing to find a replacement buyer.
At present the facility produces active ingredients for respiratory, HIV and vaccine products and employs over 450 staff.
Expansion plan
The firm first mooted the idea of building a new active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) facility at the site in July when it said it would spend £110m ($136m) on a manufacturing plant for respiratory active ingredients.
At the time GSK said: “A number of jobs will be created during the estimated three year construction phase.
“Once on-line, the new state-of-the-art facility will provide long term security for the existing manufacturing related roles and will ensure a continued supply of respiratory medicine to millions of patients around the world.”