Vetter putting $100M into its production network

Vetter, the Germany-based company that specializes in contract aseptic filling, is preparing for a significant expansion as demand for injectable drugs grows globally. The company said it will invest $100 million at sites in Germany and the U.S. that will allow it to build capacity and keep pace with "evolving regulatory requirements."

At its Ravensburg South facility in Germany, it will add one line to fill liquid cartridges and one for filling vials. The company put in a new syringe-filling line there in the spring. At its clinical manufacturing facility in Chicago, the company is adding a third filling line for prefilled syringes. That line should be operating next year and will have a 30,000 maximum batch size.

The company said it also will expand its storage capacity for cold- and room-temperature products as well as frozen products. Last year, Vetter opened an 18,000-square-meter facility in Ravensburg that provides high-bay warehousing for cold storage and room-temperature products, as well as visual inspection.

The company said Wednesday that it is adding two thawing rooms in class 100,000 environment as well as two more lyophilizers, adding to the 9 it now has operating. The company said it will also use more single-use isolator technology at its facilities to reduce the risk of product cross-contamination with high-potency compounds, such as hormones and cancer therapeutics.

The announcement comes in the same week that several contract manufacturers said they were making investments that will tap into the growth in biologic drugs. Sweden-based Recipharm will spend €32 million ($43.4 million) for a new building at its plant in Wasserburg, Germany, near Munich, to add a fourth production area for lyophilization operations. Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies said its new mammalian cell culture cGMP manufacturing facility in the U.K. has come online.

- here's the announcement