Johnson & Johnson Invests €5.5 Million in New Headquarters in Portugal

10 September 2018

In addition to the new headquarters, today the company inaugurated a clinical trials unit. Recruitment has already begun for the first ten clinical research associates.

Johnson & Johnson inaugurated its new Portuguese headquarters in Lagoas Park, a business complex in the municipality of Oeiras, in an investment of €5.5 million. The company also opened a new clinical trials unit.

“The Johnson & Johnson group of companies is the world’s largest healthcare company, and we are committed to strengthening our presence in Portugal […]. We want to continue to grow, and therefore we need the additional space,” the general-director of Janssen Portugal, Johnson & Johnson local pharmaceutical company, told Lusa.

According to Filipa Mota e Costa, the company decided to move its headquarters from Queluz de Baixo to the new building in Lagoas Park because the firm’s previous facilities were “older” and had “no room to grow,” but there were also other reasons.

“On the other hand, we also invested in modernising our facilities and these facilities where we are now [inaugurated today] have a different and more modern philosophy,” he said.

This is reflected, according to Ms Mota e Costa, “not only in the way of working”, due to “a concept of flexibility in the workplace”, but also in the employees’ working conditions.

“The entire design of the facilities took into account the well-being and health of our employees, as well as environmental issues, such as saving water and energy,” she said.

In all, Johnson & Johnson has about 400 employees in the country (at the headquarters and in its office in Porto), of which “almost 90% have university degrees,” master’s degrees or more, Ms Mota e Costa stated, referring to the company’s “highly skilled” jobs. She said that in the last two years, the group had created 60 new posts, to which another 21 were added with today’s inauguration.

The multinational will now have three main business sectors in the new headquarters: pharmaceutical (led by Janssen, which has already placed more than 80 new drugs on the market), consumer and medical devices.

In addition to the new headquarters, the company inaugurated a clinical trials unit today, for which the first ten clinical research associates are already being recruited. “The new clinical trials unit means, above all, that the Johnson & Johnson group, from now on … considers Portugal as a priority country for conducting clinical trials,” Ms Mota and Costa explained, noting that the unit will focus on advanced stages of the research on and development of new medicines.

She said that this investment “is very important for the country” and “is having a major impact.” “[The impact can be seen through] the Johnson & Johnson group’s investment in conducting clinical trials in the country and in the employment generated for clinical research associates we have hired, through health, where we are bringing access to innovative medicines to Portuguese researchers and through the advances that will come,” she said, while declining to reveal the budget for the new unit.

In 2017, the U.S.-based Johnson & Johnson had profits of 1.3 billion dollars (1.12 billion euros), a drop of 92% compared to the year before. Nevertheless, in this period, the multinational’s turnover amounted to 76.45 billion dollars (65.916 billion euros), 6.3% more than in 2016. In Portugal, the group generated a turnover of 210 million euros last year.

The prime minister, António Costa, was expected to participate in the inaugural event.

Original Story: Economia Online / Lusa

Translation: Richard Turner