Valois to cut US timelines through expansion at Congers
A Valois spokesperson told Outsourcing-pharma that: “The new molding workshop will be equipped with novel state-of-the art molding presses to run our precision injection molds. Typical Valois Pharma manufacturing set-up is to connect molding presses to ISO7 clean rooms.
“In a further manufacturing step, components are processed on high-speed automatic assembly machines in the clean room. Warehousing space should not be significantly modified for the initial phase of the project,” continued the spokesperson.
She said that the US market is important for Valois and explained that: “Nasal spray pumps are… typically made of 12 to 14 components which require long and complex processes to be manufactured, controlled and released,” adding that “the integration of molding operations…is intended to cut into the production and delivery leadtimes.”
The expansion also fits with Valois “local manufacturing” ethos and according to the spokesperson will “[make] life easier for our US customers when they need to talk face to face with production and quality people as well as to prepare and run audits.”
Once the molding capacity has been installed later this year the firm will focus on expanding production capabilities at the site. The whole operation is due to run through to 2011.
Prior to the expansion nasal pump components produced at the site were molded at Valois plants in Le Vaudreuil in France and Lugano, Switzerland before being shipped to the US for assembly.
Valois has been actively developing its manufacturing capacity over the last few years both in Europe, where it expanded manufacturing capacity 30 per cent in 2008, and at its Aptar facility in Suzhou, China, which the firm also sees as key market.
