JCR Pharmaceuticals, a Japanese public company engaged in research, development, manufacture and sales of pharmaceuticals, has chosen Luxembourg to set up a new manufacturing plant of Active Pharmaceuticals Ingredients (APIs).

The project is strategic investment for JCR in view of the global development of the company’s therapeutic enzyme products to which J-Brain Cargo®, JCR’s proprietary blood-brain-barrier technology, is applied, and aims the reinforcement of manufacturing sites for future products under development.

The new plant in Luxembourg will be the first step for JCR in establishing a global framework of its manufacturing operations outside of Japan. The company is engaged on a growth trajectory in Japan, it employs more than 500 people and its annual turnover is over €136 million.

Luxembourg's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Economy, Étienne Schneider has met the management of JCR Pharmaceuticals in Luxembourg and during the State visit to Japan in November 2017. Following up on those meetings, the Luxembourg Government and JCR Pharmaceuticals now signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) relating to a surface right on industrial land of the Ministry of Economy in the industrial park “Bommelscheuer” located in the municipality of Käerjeng.

I am honoured to have signed this MoU with the Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg. I believe that setting up an API manufacturing plant for our biomedicine in Luxembourg will be essential for the company’s global development. Being able to deliver the JCR-branded medicine from this plant to patients in the world is what I hope to see in the future,” said Shin Ashida, Representative Director, Chairman, President and CEO.

Minister Schneider stated: “The implementation of JCR in Luxembourg is in line with our positioning as a strategic hub to access the European market and with our focus on health technologies as one of the threads of our economic development strategy. The State visit to Japan was an excellent opportunity to consolidate the relationship between the Ministry of Economy and JCR and I am convinced that their implementation in Luxembourg will be to our mutual benefit.”