Boris Johnson is being urged to release millions of pounds to secure the regeneration of a drug factory set to close next year.

Global pharmaceutical company Sanofi is planning to shut its their 450-staff plant in Rainham Road South, Dagenham, in 2013 owing to a fall in demand for its cancer drugs.

Council chiefs have applied for a �12million Mayor of London grant to take over 16 acres of the factory site, which is being turned into a science and technology park.

Barking and Dagenham Council would use the grant to buy science buildings at the factory site and then lease them to companies settling down at the business park, called businesseast.

Sanofi boss Jim Moretta said the funding would help to secure the future of businesseast by placing it in the hands of the community.

The Labour council made the grant application under Boris Johnson’s London Growth Fund earlier this year.

The Mayor launched the fund in February in a bid to attract new investment across the capital.

A Mayor of London spokesman told the Post: “The bid has been received and is being considered.”