Actavis Invests $48M In 2 Puerto Rico Manufacturing Plants
Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla announced that Ireland-based pharmaceutical company Actavis is investing $48 million to reactivate and expand its two manufacturing plants in Puerto Rico.
Actavis has entered into collaboration with the Puerto Rico Industrial Development Company (PRIDCo) to enable solid dosage manufacturing and packing at its Manati site and expand current hormone production in Fajardo. The announcement comes eight months after the company acquired Warner Chilcott’s global operations including the two sites for $8.5 billion.
Robert Stewart, President of Global Operations for Actavis, said, “The expansion of our manufacturing footprint in Manatí and Fajardo represents a significant investment in the future of our Company, and underscores our commitment to building our presence in Puerto Rico. With this expansion in place, we will be better positioned to manufacture and package both current and future products within a highly recognized pharmaceutical and life-science experience environment, ensuring their timely availability to consumers in Puerto Rico and around the world.”
Current operations of the company in Puerto Rico include research and development, manufacturing, and packaging of hormonal as well as non-hormonal products. Actavis anticipates producing an estimated 2.5 billion tablets at the Manati site in new lines of generic, brand, and bio-similar products. With the expansion plans, Puerto Rico has the opportunity to help Actavis introduce new branded and generic drugs into the market.
Referring to Actavis’s contribution to the island’s economy, Governor Padilla said, “This is a significant increase in production and jobs of a company that already is contributing close to $78 million a year to Puerto Rico’s economy, between salaries, income taxes and purchases to suppliers.”
The investment is expected to open up to 300 new jobs over a three-year period and up to 700 jobs when the expansion is completed. All plans are expected to be completed by 2016.