Mayne Pharma established a U.S. beachhead three years ago when it picked up Metrics Contract Services and took over its campus in North Carolina. Now the Australian drugmaker will broaden its footprint with a new manufacturing plant that will significantly expand its capacity.
Mayne kicked off construction on Wednesday on a $65 million, 126,000-square-foot oral-dose facility in Greenville, NC, that it says doubles its U.S. capacity and triples its global fluid-bed processing capability, a service it now offers at a plant in Australia.
Both branded and generic drugs will be manufactured and packaged at the plant, which is expected to be up and running in 2018. Mayne will also consolidate its distribution at the site and plans to hire up to 110 workers. In exchange, the drugmaker will pocket $2.7 million in incentives from North Carolina for the project.
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| Stefan Cross, president of Mayne Pharma USA |
"The company will have greater flexibility to expand its modified-release product portfolio and support key existing product franchises that include doxycycline, morphine sulfate and erythromycin," Stefan Cross, president of Mayne Pharma USA, said in a statement.
The new plant will be erected next to Mayne's existing facilities. The company said it will rework some of the space in its current plant to beef up its analytical laboratory and formulation development services capacity. The repurposing includes more than 10 new processing rooms and expanded laboratories. A new visitor and staff administrative center will link the two facilities that will give employees a new 350-seat cafeteria, development and training classrooms, and a fitness center.
Mayne bought the privately owned Metrics, a niche drug developer and contract manufacturer, in 2012 in a deal that it valued at $120 million, picking up its 300 employees in the process.
- here's the release (PDF)