WATERFORD, Ireland—West Pharmaceutical Services Inc. has broken ground on a 44-acre site to mark the start of construction on the firm's new pharmaceutical component manufacturing plant in Waterford.
Construction will begin in mid-July, a company spokeswoman said. The facility is expected to be fully operational in 2018.
When the firm announced in November that it would build the structure, it estimated the cost of the project to be in the $125 million range. However, at that time most detailed plans had not been finalized.
The Exton, Pa.-headquartered company hosted a groundbreaking ceremony for the new facility June 16, attended by numerous local officials.
Its newest plant will span about 95,000 square feet, but there will be space available on the plot of land to expand to 250,000 square feet if the need arises, the spokeswoman said.
The facility also will include manufacturing capacity for additional injectable component product lines, which West said are integral to the packaging of many injectable medicines.
More than 150 employees are expected to make up the work force at the plant by 2018.
West's newest facility will produce elastomeric sheeting to package insulin for pen injectors and other high-value packaging components for injectable drugs.
Two key product lines include Westar RU components, which are delivered sterile and ready to use to customers for their aseptic filling operations, and NovaPure components, which the company said is it highest quality packaging component line.
The facility is being designed to handle the present needs by the company's customer base, some additional products as well as to meet anticipated future demand, the spokeswoman said.
She said products produced at the facility will include packaging components for insulin cartridges and other high-value packaging products for injectable drugs.
“West's presence in Ireland is of great importance to us for meeting customer demand for high-quality packaging components,” according to West CEO Eric Green. “Packaging systems play an important role in ensuring the purity, long-term stability and efficacy of injectable drug products.
“The advanced components that will be produced at our state-of-the-art Waterford plant will help our pharmaceutical and biotechnology customers deliver their products to patients.”
He said the Waterford center will be a center of excellence for advanced packaging components needed by customers for a range of sophisticated injectable therapies.
West has had a presence in Ireland since 2005.
Its Dublin manufacturing and development center, where the company recently completed a multimillion dollar expansion, is home to the firm's Tech Group Europe Ltd.
That operation serves as West's global contract manufacturing product center. It specializes in providing device design, development and manufacturing services for pharmaceutical and medical device producers.