Norbrook Laboratories celebrate Queen's Award

Norbrook Laboratories is celebrating after receiving a 2002 Queen's Award for Enterprise in the International Trade category.

The Newry-based world leader in pharmaceuticals has manufacturing facilities in every continent and sales offices in more than ten locations globally, and sells in over 120 countries around the world.

Norbrook's outstanding performance is reflected in an annual growth rate of over 20% in the past ten years which is expected to increase to 30% in the forthcoming year.

Steering the company's ongoing success is CEO and Chairman, Dr Edward Haughey who is now widely recognised as the father of the veterinary pharmaceuticals industry around the world. He has developed and grown Norbrook, which now employs 1,300 people worldwide (1,000 in Northern Ireland) since he founded it over 30 years ago.

Norbrook has recently purchased the chemical synthesis research facility of Scotia Pharmaceuticals. This company was unsuccessful with their application to the US food and Drug Administration (FDA) for a marketing authorisation for their unique drug for the treatment of thyroid cancer. The facility, built at a cost of £30 million, is based in Carlisle, Cumbria, and its acquisition gives Norbrook a clear competitive head start to further develop their AIDS treatment drugs for African markets.

Referring to this new development, Dr Haughey said: "Everyone has to have a vision, has to be able to dream. But if you don't wake up, you can't make the dream become reality - and we at Norbrook are very wide awake."

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