Janssen’s activities in Belgium have a wide reach: with all pharmaceutical activities present, from R&D to supply chain and commercial to manufacturing, this innovation powerhouse hosts over 5000 employees including 2300 researchers. Every year, it invests €1.5 billion in research & development towards fulfilling the Janssen Promise: to create a future where disease is a thing of the past.

Janssen lab technicians in Beerse

Janssen is known for its research and innovative science in pharmaceuticals, particularly in Neurosciences, Oncology, Infectious Diseases & Vaccines, Immunology, Cardiovascular & Metabolic Diseases and Pulmonary Hypertension. Their work to create a sustainable healthcare system with the patient at the heart of new developments is divided across six Belgian locations.

Janssen’s ‘high-volume’ production plant in Beerse, near Antwerp, is a center of excellence for certain technologies, such as products in liquid and semi-solid form, transdermal products and sterile products. A new €21 million investment is revolutionizing the production line of pharmaceuticals, from traditionally slow ‘batch manufacturing’ to a more efficient and more harmonized ‘continuous manufacturing.’ Meanwhile, the chemical production site in Geel produces 60% of the total production capacity of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) within Johnson & Johnson worldwide.

Inside Janssen’s chemical production site in Geel

The Beerse site is also busy with Project LION, a new top lab that was made possible by a €42.8 million investment. It stands for Labs-In-One-Network and comprises the construction of a new lab for the Small Molecule Analytical Development & Pharmaceutical Sciences departments. Stef Heylen, Managing Director of Janssen in Belgium, explains:

This investment is very good news and an important step for the future of our campus. Not only does this new lab offer a great future for the research department, it also strengthens the position of the production departments. The fact that we are able to invest such a large amount here in Beerse also shows the strength of, and the belief in, our campus.

The new lab will be fully operational in 2020.

A further project of Johnson & Johnson is the JLABS, an incubator to nurture early-stage companies actively pursuing research – the first of the European JLABS was set up in Belgium. The idea comes from Johnson & Johnson’s belief that no organization can achieve everything internally.

Janssen lab technicians in Beerse

About the company in this story...

Janssen

Janssen was established in Belgium in 1951.

www.janssen.com/belgium

6 locations

All pharmaceutical activities present in over 6 locations

€1.5 billion

Yearly R&D investment

5 000

EMPLOYEES IN BELGIUM