GSK said it is on track to convert its global manufacturing sites into using renewable electricity, with its facilities in Singapore becoming the latest to make the transition.
The UK pharma has signed a 10-year deal with energy service provider Sembcorp so that all three of its manufacturing sites in Singapore will use 100% renewable electricity by 2025, according to a Thursday release. The Singaporean sites currently use 3% renewable energy.
This deal will increase GSK’s global purchased renewable electricity usage by 9%. Overall, the pharma company is trying to achieve 80% reduction in its greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and a 90% reduction by 2045.
GSK has been exploring the deal with Sembcorp over the past two years, GSK’s VP of sustainability Claire Lund told Endpoints News in an interview. The next six months will now only involve legal contracts and sorting paperwork, she added.
The pharma company’s three sites in Singapore make HIV, oncology and infectious disease therapies and have over 1,500 workers. They have injected over $2.5 billion in Singapore to date, according to the release. No financial details were disclosed on the Sembcorp deal.
Currently, 83% of GSK’s global manufacturing footprint uses renewable electricity, the company said. Earlier this month, it opened a 56-acre solar farm and two new wind turbines to generate over 50% of electricity for six facilities in Irvine, UK.
Half of GSK’s carbon footprint comes from its metered-dose inhalers, branded as Ventolin. Lund says it is working on a low-carbon version of this medication to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 90%, with the first patient dosed in a Phase 3 clinical trial on Wednesday. The Phase 3 trials were announced in November 2023.