Former employees claim the structure being dismantled was never used. In December 2013, GSK announced a number of national investments worth almost £200 million, including at its Worthing plant.

A new bulk sterile facility and filling line with cutting-edge equipment was planned for Worthing to house the company’s flagship antibiotic drug, Augmentin. It was the company’s first new factory in the UK in forty years.Planning permission.

Worthing Borough Council approved a new pharmaceutical production building in May 2014, which would include three manufacturing modules, utility and other engineering operations.

However, following the Brexit referendum in July 2017, GlaxoSmithKline announced that it would outsource some manufacturing work at its Southdownview Way location, resulting in the loss of 246 permanent jobs, or more than a third of the 672-strong Worthing team.

The corporation also intended to sell the Horlicks and MaxiNutrition brands in the United Kingdom as part of a shift toward more investment in respiratory and HIV medications manufacture.

At the time, a spokeswoman stated that none of the company’s announcements were related to the United Kingdom’s decision to exit the European Union.

Further changes to manufacturing activities were revealed in July 2019, when employees were brought to a meeting and informed that work on several goods maintained at the Worthing plant would be relocated before the end of 2020.

GSK stated that the decision came after a review of its global antibiotic manufacturing facilities. A representative stated:

“The review concluded that it is no longer cost competitive to manufacture the active ingredients for sterile antibiotics and our injectable Augmentin product at our factory in Worthing.”

As a result, we have proposed discontinuing production of the active components for sterile antibiotics and our injectable Augmentin product at the Worthing facility by the end of 2020.

“Augmentin remains a priority brand in GSK’s Classic and Established (CEP) portfolio.

The site will continue to manufacture Augmentin in its oral tablet form, which accounts for the vast majority of the brand’s income. Injectable Augmentin now accounts for less than 3% of the whole brand portfolio.

According to trade union Unite, the statement came ‘completely out of the blue’, leaving employees astonished, outraged, and upset.

According to one employee, GSK had abandoned plans to continue construction of the sterile facility, which had only recently been completed.