First minister Rhodri Morgan is today visiting a Tredegar-based company which has announced strong half year sales results of £11.3m and which has appointed 43 new members of staff.

Mr Morgan is at Penn Pharmaceuticals to open one of Wales' first high containment processing suites.

The suite will expand Penn's range of pharmaceutical services and build on the company's existing reputation for dealing with high potency drugs.

A growing number of new treatments, for example, cancer drugs, contain highly potent compounds which are active at very low concentrations. During the manufacturing process, such compounds need to be specially contained to avoid contamination and exposure by operators.

The new facility has been designed and validated to allow fully-contained manufacture of highly potent drugs.

Valerie Ellis, human resources director, said: "Last year was a strong year for Penn, the business grew by nearly 40 per cent which meant that we had to recruit more highly skilled pharmaceutical professionals.

"All departments within Penn witnessed growth during 2007 and 2008's recruitment drive has started well, we have already appointed seven new members of staff.

"Over the coming months, we anticipate further growth across the company by introducing new business initiatives which include the production of high potency drugs and extending our temperature controlled facilities by a further 75,000 square feet capacity to support our Clinical Trial Supply (CTS) and Storage and Distribution services."

Penn Pharmaceutical Service has recently opened a US office, although there have been strong links across the Atlantic for a number of years with Penn working with US companies who need clinical trial supply and manufacture, as well as import and release of pharmaceutical products into the European market. The US base will allow for further global expansion and increase Penn's profile.