Minakem gets $18M from parent Minafin to upgrade French manufacturing site

Minakem, a CMO, is getting $18 million from its parent company, Belgium-based Minafin, to upgrade and increase capacity at its manufacturing plant in Dunkirk, France.

The company said it plans to use the investment to set up a new production line, increase production capacity and upgrade other operations at the site. The improvements are expected to increase production value to a total capacity of 148m3.

The upgrades are in response to several new innovations and molecules coming to market, which is driving demand for more production capacity in Europe, the company said.

“It fits into our ‘Jump 21’ strategy and follows Minafin’s objective to increase overall production capacity at Minakem’s sites,” Thierry van Nieuwenhove, Minakem’s chief executive, said in a statement. “This will also enable us to better respond to growing market needs and will undoubtedly contribute to the expansion of our product and service offering and to our growth.”

The engineering phase of the project at the site, which was purchased from AstraZeneca 2009, is already underway. The upgrades are expected to be operational by May 2019, pending regulatory approvals planned for earlier that year.