Major bio expansion for Cook

The cash injection will add 80,000sq. ft to the existing site, and with 200 extra jobs will more than double the existing workforce at the site when the expansion is fully completed. The development will see Cook return to providing formulation, filling and finishing services to the pharma industry, activities that were carried out by parenteral contract manufacturer Cook Pharmaceutical Solutions until its acquisition by Baxter in 2001. President of Cook Pharmica, Jerry Arthur, says the expansion "marks the dawn of a new era in the company's growth,"​ further diversifying the firm's portfolio of offerings to the pharma sector. The existing facility will benefit from the addition of two new filling lines and corresponding finishing lines, with plans including one high-speed syringe filling line and one low-medium speed vial filling line with lyophilisation capacity up to 250 sq. ft. Both lines will be kitted out with isolator technology. Cook's Bloomington site is currently focused on developing and manufacturing mammalian cell-culture based products, but will now be able to offer formulation, filling and finishing services to customers. The facility will also move into aseptically filled parenteral vial and syringe products such as simple solutions and diutents, suspensions, vaccines, proteins and biologics. There is a further 600,000 sq. ft of available space on the campus into which the company can move should it continue to expand. Through the expansion plans, Cook was offered up to $2.2m by the Indiana Economic Development Corporation in performance-based tax credits and up to $100,000 in training grants based on the firm's job creation plans. Construction work on the expansion is due to start in mid-2008, with completion expected in early 2010.