Siegfried Generics, the pharmaceutical company, is to invest Lm5.7 million in Malta and generate some 50 jobs, Investments Minister Austin Gatt said yesterday as he visited the site of the new factory at Hal-Far industrial estate.

The Siegfried Group was founded in 1873 and is a global chemical supplier and service provider to the pharmaceutical and chemical industry alike. Based in Switzerland, it also has production sites in Germany and the US, with 1,000 employees in all.

Dr Gatt said works were well underway and the plant should become validated and operational by the middle of this year when the promoters expect to start initial trial production runs to gear up for full swing production by the end of the year. In the past two years, Malta Enterprise has approved nine foreign projects in this sector which are expected to increase the global sales figure of this industry to €200 million by next year. By that time, the sector will employ over 800 people. This will include companies like Actavis, Siegfried, Arrow Pharm, Medichem, Combino, Amino Chemicals and Starpharma.

Siegfried vice president and head of the project development Paul Senn said Malta featured strongly as a location where to establish a new facility, especially given the fact that an area was already available to house the plant and equipment.

Other important criteria included the workforce, Malta's EU membership, its infrastructure and the fact that the Maltese had English as an official language.