Vetter invests $100m to keep filling services ahead of the game

The investment will be spread between the contract development and manufacturing organisation’s (CDMO’s) facilities in the US and Germany, fulfilling demand from pharma and biopharma companies for aseptic filling services.

“Overall, the industry is doing well,”​ Vetter’s Managing Director Thomas Otto told Outsourcing-Pharma.com. “This is largely due to an increase in the types of drugs that require manufacturing services by companies like Vetter, in particular, the biotechnology drugs.​

“These drugs are, by definition, complex compounds requiring special handling and services. And because of the expansion of the overall market, we are experiencing higher customer demand in this area.”​

He continued, telling us Vetter expected this trend to continue in the long-term. “To stay ahead of the curve means to invest in the future,” ​he said.

There has been a number of CDMOs investing and expanding in the aseptic filling sector - just this week we’ve covered news from Aesica​ and Recipharm​ - and so we asked Otto if such competition was a motivation for investing.

“Competition in the market place is always a strong motivator for investing,”​ he said, adding: “It is our strategy to continue to invest in our infrastructure and services regardless of the competition.”​

Lines, Lyophilisers and Livelihoods​

The investment will add a number of technologies to both Vetter’s sites in Ravensburg, Germany, and the facility in Chicago, US. According to Otto, “all expansion will be completed by 2017 depending on the individual size of the technology involved.”​

These include new filling lines for liquid cartridges, vials and prefilled syringes, two thawing rooms, two lyophilisers, two single-use isolators and an automated visual inspection machine.

Furthermore, Otto told us there would be a number of new jobs created to meet the needs of the expansion.