Gerresheimer invests further in plastic packaging
pharmafile | September 23, 2009 | News story | Manufacturing and Production | packaging
Gerresheimer has continued its expansion into the pharmaceutical plastic packaging sector with the construction of two new plants, one in Europe and the other in the US.
Gerresheimer's heritage has been in pharmaceutical glassware, but in recent years it has been investing steadily in the high-growth plastics business, which encompasses plastic bottles and other packaging and drug delivery systems such as inhalers and now accounts for around a third of group sales.
The company has opened a new production centre for pharmaceutical plastic packaging in Masalaves in Spain and an R&D centre for medical plastic systems in Georgia, US.
"Plastics are increasingly gaining in importance within our highly specialised service portfolio for the international pharmaceutical industry," said Gerresheimer's chief executive Dr Axel Herberg.
Drugmakers are adopting plastic packaging in favour of glass because of safety and convenience factors, while the market is also being driven by the development of containers with improved barrier protection, more patient-friendly design and better aesthetics.
Excluding its recently divested technical plastics unit, Gerresheimer's overall plastic systems sales rose 5% to 140 million euros in the first half of this year, overtaking moulded glass sales which fell 14%.
The two new plants are "crucial investments" for the group, said Herberg.
The Spanish production facility is thought to be the largest in southern Europe and will manufacture bottles and other items such as eye drops and nasal sprays. It will serve the pharmaceutical markets in the Southern and Central European regions.
The R&D centre in the US has been added onto one of Gerresheimer's existing manufacturing units in order to create a facility that can handle product and process development and production in one unit. This is the first time that Gerresheimer has been able to offer this full spectrum of services from a US plant, although it already operates similar units in Europe.
The plant's product range covers inhalers, insulin pen systems, skin-prick aids and lancets for the diabetes sector.
Last year, Gerresheimer added to its plastics portfolio with the purchase of Allplas of Brazil, having acquired Spain's EDP at the end of 2007, Germany's Wilden in 2006 and Denmark's Superfos a year earlier.
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