West Pharmaceutical assesses production capabilities after fire

LIONVILLE, Pa. (Feb. 12)—West Pharmaceutical Services Inc. is assessing its manufacturing capabilities following a Jan. 29 explosion at its Kinston, N.C., plant that killed four workers and injured 37. Federal and local authorities continue to look for a cause of the accident. Recovery efforts are well under way at the Kinston facility where bulk materials are compounded into formulations for medical device components and mixed for use by other West facilities, the company said. Nearly all the finished goods have been removed from the factory and are being shipped to customers. The majority of the molding tools has been recovered and, based on a preliminary assessments, appear to be useable, the firm said. Tooling has been shipped to West facilities in Florida, Singapore and other U.S. sites, where it will be put to service, subject to cleaning and further evaluation. The process should be completed within the next two weeks. To accommodate the loss of the Kinston facility, some rubber compounding production will move to St. Petersburg, Fla., and Kearney, Neb., with other work shifting to European operations to support molding tooling moved to those venues. West also said it will temporarily relocate some Kinston employees to other West facilities.