Injectable drug administration solutions provider West Pharmaceutical Services (Exton, Pennsylvania / USA; www.westpharma.com) has announced plans to set up a completely new manufacturing facility in Waterford / Ireland to meet rising demand from pharmaceutical and biotech companies. Construction of the plant, which is expected to come at a price tag of EUR 100m, is expected to commence early next year. Once operational – West Pharmaceutical did not provide an estimated start-up date – the facility will produce packaging components for insulin injector cartridges as well as other high-value packaging components, the company said.

Commenting on the plans, group CEO Donald E. Morel said, “In the future, we intend for this site to be a centre of excellence for advanced packaging components to meet the needs of our customer base for a range of sophisticated injectable therapies.” Specifically, the new site is to specialise on the company’s proprietary elastomeric sheeting, used to package insulin for use in pen injectors. In a second step, West Pharmaceutical said it plans to produce its injectable component product lines at Waterford, too.

The facility will initially employ some 150 employees, but its overall workforce could rise to up to 300, the US company said. West Pharmaceutical has been present in Ireland since 2005, and also operates a manufacturing and development centre in Dublin. The company posted total sales of USD 1.4 bn in 2013.