With the aging of the population fueling an increased demand for eye care and respiratory medications, recent expansions by blow-fill-seal (BFS) specialist Ritedose have positioned it to take advantage.
By adding capacity to produce an additional 180 million units of ophthalmic and respiratory medications by August, the CDMO has announced that its annual production capability will exceed 2.6 billion units, making it the largest BFS manufacturer in the United States.
In the BFS process, plastic containers for drugs are formed, filled and sealed in a sterile process.
The 29-year-old, Columbia, South Carolina company has added more than 200 employees since it was acquired by Novo Holdings in January of 2022. The growth surge has brought Ritedose’s headcount to more than 600.
The expansion comes as CEO Jody Chastain explained in a release that Ritedose is pivoting “resources away” from its 503B outsourcing division which produces compounded drugs and is “concentrating all resources to FDA approved drug products.”
The shift allows Ritedose to maximize its specialization and innovation in BFS, Chastain added.
“Ritedose has co-developed and commercialized more than 80% of new products introduced in a BFS dosage form for the past 10 years,” he said.
In February of this year, Ritedose revealed that it had purchased 105 acres of land from the Midlands Technical College’s enterprise campus in Columbia, South Carolina.
The purchase is part of a multi-phase expansion and $81 million outlay spread over four years which will bring Ritedose’s campus to 500,000 square feet of floor space, with the first building on the newly acquired land being a 225,000-square-foot distribution and logistics center.