West Pharma Has High Hopes For New $15M Indian Facility
By Lori Clapper
West Pharmaceuticals Services (WPS), a producer and packager of delivery systems for sterile drug manufacturing, has launched a new $15 million Indian facility in Sri City, near Chennai. The plant will be used to produce seals in primary packaging of injectable medicines. It will also be fully oriented around exports and will aim to service pharma and biopharma customers in India and the wider Asia Pacific region (APAC), The Hindu reports.
The unit will employ 45 people and is expected to be scaled up to 1.6 billion components by 2018.
Donald E. Morel, Jr., West's Chairman and CEO said with more pharma customers establishing India-based operations, WPS wants to more efficiently “meet market demand and further establish the company's presence in this growing and dynamic market.”
While financial benefits were one of the reasons for moving production into India, the company says the investment will cut costs and lead times by being closer to its customers.
“This investment is important to our strategy of partnering with customers in India and the Asia Pacific region to help them provide medicines to patients more efficiently, reliably, and safely," Warwick Bedwell, President, Pharmaceutical Packaging Systems, Asia Pacific Region, said in a company announcement.
In June 2012, WPS signed a 99-year lease on approximately 783,600 square feet of land, and construction of the manufacturing plant began two months later. The company chose Sri City because of the suitability of land, utilities availability, labor, logistics, and quality of life — vital concerns for manufacturers looking to settle in India and other developing countries.
He also said Indian operations would enable the company to evolve into a strong manufacturing hub in the APAC region.
WPS, which is already worth about $1.4 billion, is also in talks to invest even more into its Indian operations, with plans to add production of elastomer components and other products in the near future. It currently has a presence in the Asia Pacific market, including a plant in Singapore, two plants in Qingpu, China, and sales offices in Australia, China, India, and Singapore.