Johnson & Johnson revamps manufacturing once again
pharmafile | October 15, 2012 | News story | Manufacturing and Production |Â Â Gurabo, J&J, JJ, Puerto RicoÂ
Johnson & Johnson continues to restructure its manufacturing network, expanding production at plants in Puerto Rico whilst setting up a new distribution hub for its European operations.
The company said it plans to invest some $226.5 million in four Puerto Rican plants, adding capacity at three pharma facilities operated by its Janssen pharmaceuticals unit – including two in Gurabo and one in Manati – as well as a medical device plant in San Lorenzo run by its Ethicon subsidiary.
Spanish newspaper El Nuevo Dia said the investment programme would add more than 300 jobs and take between 12 and 24 months to complete.
The investment comes shortly after J&J announced an overhaul of its Las Piedras plant in Puerto Rico, which is operating under a US Food and Drug Administration consent decree after serious Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) violations were uncovered there.
Among the new projects set in motion is the expansion of J&J’s biologic drug plant in Gurabo – which currently manufactures the company’s Remicade (infliximab) arthritis and Crohn’s disease product – to include the production of additional injectable products in the company’s portfolio.
The Gurabo facility will also take over some Remicade production currently undertaken in Switzerland, according to the newspaper.
The second facility in Gurabo, which currently manufactures drugs such as opioid analgesic Nucynta (tapentadol) and anticoagulant Xarelto (rivaroxaban), will be fitted out with new freeze-drying equipment.
The Manati plant will implement new production technologies for oral contraceptives and the Ethicon unit in San Lorenzo will expand production of sutures and other surgical equipment.
European hub
Meanwhile, J&J said it has invested €49 million ($63m) in a 21,500 sq. m. distribution facility in La Louvière, Belgium, that will consolidate the activities of 15 logistics centres, allowing medicines from the firm’s European production sites to be shipped directly to a single, central hub.
From there, the medicines will be shipped to Janssen companies in 11 European countries and to J&J subsidiaries throughout the world.
The new centre will employ 115 staff and will handle 160 million packs of medicine a year.
Phil Taylor
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