US pharmaceuticals company Gambro announced yesterday that it would invest €10.5 million at its facility in Larne, Co Antrim, over the next three years.

The investment will receive €1.2 million in backing from Invest NI and is expected to create 86 new jobs in research and development.

The focus of the funding will be Gambro's subsidiary, Ivex, which specialises in making sterile solutions for pharmaceutical and medical devices companies. Gambro acquired Ivex last year.

Leslie Morrison, chief executive of Invest NI, said the investment would be contributing about €3 million annually in wages and salaries to the local economy by 2007.

"Increasingly, we are seeing this kind of strategic investment by companies that have recognised the quality, reliability and capability of the NI workforce, and the willingness and flexibility of innovative local management," Mr Morrison said.

Gambro, based in Colorado, is a world leader in blood bank technologies, automated blood collection and whole blood processing systems. The firm operates facilities in the US and UK, and sells into more than 90 countries.