West Pharmaceutical Services Inc., an injectable drug administration provider, plans to expand its global manufacturing operations to include a new site in Waterford, Ireland. The new facility will produce packaging components for insulin injector cartridges and other high-value packaging components, in order to meet growing demand from pharmaceutical and biotech customers. Once operational, this new site could bring approximately 150 new jobs to Waterford and is intended to grow to support additional jobs through future expansions.

“With diabetes emerging as one of the fastest growing diseases globally, our pharmaceutical customers are expanding their production lines for injectable insulin. To meet this growing demand, we are announcing an expansion today that will help us address this need and continue to serve this critical patient population,” says Donald E. Morel, Jr., West’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. “In the future, we intend for this site to be a center of excellence for advanced packaging components to meet the needs of our customer base for a range of sophisticated injectable therapies.”

“Waterford, Ireland, is an ideal setting for this new plant, given its business-friendly environment and the growing health science industry in the area,” Morel adds. “On behalf of West’s Board of Directors, I would like to thank the many representatives of Waterford City, the Irish Government, and the Irish Development Agency for their support.”

Construction is planned to begin in early 2015 on the 44-acre site at Knockhouse on Old Kilmeaden Road in Waterford, subject to the project obtaining requisite planning and zoning approvals, which the Company believes will occur later this year. This site will focus on elastomeric sheeting, which is used to package insulin for use in pen injectors. Future plans include additional manufacturing space for West’s injectable component product lines, integral to many injectable and dosage forms.

Release Date: October 2, 2014
Source: West Pharmaceutical Services