Vetter swells filling capacity with $100m investment
pharmafile | October 11, 2013 | News story | Manufacturing and Production | API, Vetter, sterile liquid
German contract development and manufacturing organisation (CDMO) Vetter says it is planning to invest over $100 million across its production sites in Germany and the US to meet rising demand for filling capacity.
The €100 million venture will also help Vetter “keep pace with evolving regulatory requirements”, for example by expanding the use of single-use isolator technology that is required to prevent cross-contamination when filling highly-potent compounds such as hormones and cancer therapeutics, said the company.
The market for aseptic filling is on the rise thanks to an expansion in the market for sterile liquid pharmaceuticals delivered in syringes, cartridges and vials, a trend that is in turn fuelled by the shift towards biologic and biosimilar drug development, as well the escalating market for cancer drugs. It also reflects an ongoing shift away from terminal sterilisation of injectable medicines.
Outsourced manufacturing for sterile injectables such as cytotoxics is expected to drive growth at more than 12% a year between now and 2017, according to projections from Frost & Sullivan.
The latest set of upgrades has been prompted by “a growing number in clinical and commercial projects”, it added.
Specifically, two new filling lines are currently being designed for Vetter’s Ravensburg South facility which will be used to fill liquid cartridges and vials, respectively, and add to a new syringe line that was launched earlier this year.
Vetter’s US clinical manufacturing facility in Chicago will see a third filling line installed for pre-filled syringes that should be operational in 2014, and will handle batch sizes up to 30,000.
Vetter is also expanding its storage volume for cold- and room-temperature products – as well as frozen products – along with two new thawing rooms and a pair of lyophilisers to add to the nine currently in operation.
Vetter spent some €35 million on the Ravensburg site last year to open a new centre for visual inspection and logistics that boosted its capacity to handle both cold chain and ambient temperature distribution.
Thomas Otto, Vetter’s managing director, said: “With these initiatives, we not only satisfy their demand for increased capacity, but continue to provide the kind of industry-leading facilities and high quality standards to be a reliable and efficient partner for our customers.”
Phil Taylor
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