Swiss CMO's China plant up and running

China has signed off on Switzerland-based Siegfried’s new contract manufacturing plant in Nantong, and after 10 months of trial operation, the facility is open for business.

The CMO says the new facility, which is northwest of Shanghai, has a 350-cubic-meter capacity and has about 200 employees. The company said the pilot plants have been producing for 18 months and initial orders for large-scale production have been received. In addition, products will be transferred from other locations to Nantong.

The company, which also has production sites in Switzerland, Germany, France, Malta and the U.S., started construction on the China project in August 2013. At the time, it said it would have technology that was compatible with a plant in Zofingen, Switzerland, to make transfers between the two more efficient.

Last year, Siegfried also paid €270 million ($302.3 million) for BASF's ephedrine, pseudoephedrine and caffeine API businesses, as well as BASF's custom drug manufacturing operation, all in Europe.

Siegfried is not the only European drugmaker that is betting on contract manufacturing in China. German drugmaker Boehringer Ingelheim is investing in a €35 million ($44.9 million) biologics plant in Shanghai, which it expects to have operational in Q1 2017.

- here’s the release

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