GlaxoSmithKline will spend $245 million on drug R&D hub in Upper Providence

GlaxoSmithKline announced a $139 million investment Monday in its manufacturing site in Rockville, Md., and reiterated that it will spend $245 million to upgrade its drug research and discovery hub in Upper Providence Township, Montgomery County.

The U.K.-based drugmaker, which employs 5,000 in the Philadelphia area, is building out four floors of new labs, called "smart" labs because they have updated technology at the Collegeville site in Upper Providence Township. By 2018, GSK has said, nearly 40 percent of its global pharmaceutical research and drug development workforce will be based in Collegeville, one of two R&D hubs worldwide. The other is in Stevenage, England, outside London.