Boehringer Ingelheim (BI) has broken ground to construct a new production facility for solid-dose drugs in Ingelheim am Rhein, Germany. This new solids launch facility will focus on development activities for drugs in tablet form and manufacture them for worldwide market launches.

The company is investing EUR 85 million ($100 million) in the new facility, specifically focusing on modern and flexible production, to be better positioned for marketing new drugs.

Starting in 2020, 75 employees will develop new production methods for tablet preparations and manufacture these centrally for all global market launches. The company says that production of older, easier-to-manufacture drugs has been gradually relocated to different countries in the worldwide manufacturing network since 2016. BI noted that the new solids launch facility allows the company to keep the value-added chain in Germany over the long term, from research through to production.

Between 2016 and 2017, BI constructed a production facility in Ingelheim, Germany for a cost of EUR 34 million ($39 million) —known as the “diabetes factory,” for antidiabetic agents. As of 2020, the production of such preparations is to be relocated to other countries, such as Mexico and Greece. The facility was designed for flexibility and serves as a part of the new production strategy to prepare for product launches as well as be able to react promptly to market changes and develop products internally, according to the company.

Source: Boehringer Ingelheim