Baxter Bolsters German Bio-Plant with New Packaging Line
Baxter’s facility has been the subject of a number of expansions in recent years and last month the contract manufacturing organization (CMO) added a new packaging line.
“This is exactly what clients are looking for,” said Baxter International spokesperson John O’Malley to Outsourcing-Pharma.com.“With this new investment, Baxter is now a one-stop shop for our clients.”
The new line will allow clients to access such packaging capabilities as printing of variable data, booklet packaging, and control weighing and add to the firm’s manufacturing capacity at the plant.
Furthermore, “equipment for the implementation of the serialization is completely installed,” O’Malley added, and “go-live of data management system should be in 2013.”
The facility has responded a number of times to rising demand for cytotoxic manufacturing service, ramping up its freeze-drying capacity for a second time in 2011 and, earlier this year, announcing a €58m ($77m) expansion to the site.
CMOs invest in ADC
The Halle site provides a range of contract manufacturing services, including antibody drug conjugate (ADC) production which will also be supported by the new packing line.
This type of high technology manufacturing work has been a real area of investment for the contract manufacturing sector in recent years. Established players like Lonza and Piramal have repeatedly expanded capacity, while more recent entrants to the market such as Novasep and Catalent have spent significant amounts to add capabilities.
