With a hefty grant from the government of Romania, German generics and consumer products manufacturer Stada will become the first international medicines company in more than 30 years to build a plant in the country.
Stada has broken ground on the pill manufacturing facility in the Aries Industrial Park in Turda which will create 375 jobs and is set to go online by the end of 2024.
Of the 50 million euros ($52 million) invested in the factory, 21 million euros ($22 million) is provided in the form of a government grant, according to the news outlet Romania-Insider.com.
Stada revealed its plan for the plant in January of this year, calling the facility a “supply chain hub” and emphasizing its critical location.
“It is close to our testing laboratories and warehouse in Timisoara, Romania, as well as to the Stada production units in Serbia,” Mihai Fugarevici, general manager of Stada Romania, explained in a release. “The geographical location of the factory also provides fast transport links to key European markets.”
The 30,000-square-meter (323,000-square-foot) plant will include nine lines to produce solid dosage products, with the potential to expand to 12 lines. Located on a 100,000-square-meter plot of land, expansion of the facility with additional buildings also will be possible.
Products manufactured at the plant will be destined for the European market, Stada said. The factory will make generics and over-the-counter medicines, including antidepressants, antihistamines and anti-inflammation agents along with treatments for diabetes, high cholesterol and hypertension.
The facility will be able to supply more than 100 million packs of products annually. The company’s current manufacturing facilities pump out approximately 13 billion solid-dose units and 700 million packs per year, Stada said.
The Turda site also will have warehouse capacity for 7,400 pallets.
“Developments during the pandemic, and ongoing industry challenges over the past couple of years have demonstrated the vital importance of a robust medicines supply chain in Europe,” Stada’s chief technical officer, Miguel Pagan, said in the release.
In 2020, Stada inked a deal with GSK to purchase 15 of its consumer health products for the European market, including venous treatment Venoruton, cold drug Coldrex, vitamin C food supplement Cetebe, sore throat med Mebucaine and allergy remedy Tavegyl.