Pharma Tech Industries says that when it comes to powdered pharmaceutical products, it is the largest contract manufacturer and packager in the world. Still, it would like to be even larger.
The company is investing several million dollars to expand its facilities in Union, MO, near St. Louis, according to Healthcare Packaging. The company is adding 60,000 square feet of manufacturing space to the facility. That will bring the total to 160,000 square feet, a nearly 40% increase. The additional space will be used primarily for producing ingestible powders and will include a production room built to ISO8/100,000 clean-room standards.
Pharma Tech also has a 270,000-square-foot facility in Royston, GA, where the company is based. It recently completed work there on an analytical laboratory that allows it to provide services that include high-pressure liquid chromatography and particle size analysis of powders using laser diffraction.
Pharma Tech Industries Chairman Tee Noland told Healthcare Packaging the expansions reflect an increase in business and the company's decision to offer new services. "These projects are in line with our goal of responsible, gradual growth that allows PTI to reach into new areas while continuing to refine and hone existing capabilities," Noland said.
Many of the largest drugmakers are cutting back their manufacturing in the face of generic competition, a move that is seen as a plus for contract manufacturers. That has led to expansion for a number of CMOs, as well as sparking a healthy mergers and acquisitions trend for the business.
Catalent Pharma Solutions recently said it would invest nearly $35 million in a controlled-release drug manufacturing facility in Winchester, KY. It will add 80,000 square feet to the 100,000-square-foot facility. In January, private equity investor Warburg Pincus agreed to pay $195 million to buy JHP Pharmaceuticals, a sterile injectables contract manufacturer and specialty drug company. JHP has a 171,000-square-foot plant in Rochester, MI, and about 370 employees in manufacturing, development and sales. On the packaging side of the business, Seattle-based private equity investor Frazier Healthcare has rolled up a couple of pharma packaging businesses into Packaging Coordinators Inc. and has been expanding some of their facilities.
- read the Healthcare Packaging story