China's pharmaceutical company Porton has opened new research and development laboratories for small molecules in Mengeš, a town north of Ljubljana. Porton values its initial investment at €50 million.

The renovated facility includes labs for research and development and a kilo lab with equipment for process chemistry and analytics.

Porton PharmaTech, the Slovenian subsidiary of Porton Pharma Solutions, has hired more than 30 new employees and expects the growth to continue.

Porton also began the construction of a pilot plant, which will allow the company to supply its customers with the first batches of active pharmaceutical ingredients.

Opening the R&D labs is another milestone on the path to globalisation after the company obtained the US-based J-Star Research R&D firm in 2017, the company said on launching the facility on 22 May.

Porton Pharma Solutions is a Chinese pharmaceutical contract development and manufacturing company with more than 5,000 employees across 20 sites in China, Europe and the US.