Vetter has outlined initial plans for the purchase and development of an 18-acre site in Des Plaines, a suburb of Chicago, in the US.
The German contract development and manufacturing organisation provides state-of-the-art manufacturing from early clinical development to commercial filling and packaging of injectable drugs at Ravensburg, Germany and at the Illinois Science+Technology Park in Skokie, Chicago, US.
For this new project, the company plans investment of approximately $320 million on construction and site improvements over more than ten years.
Vetter envisages that the new plant will offer global customers US manufacturing for their market supply needs of commercialised drugs.
Once completed, the site would include 1,138,237 ft2 (approximately 106,000 m2) of facility space. If approved, the facility would be Vetter's second US manufacturing site and create between 400–500 new local jobs.
The Des Plaines project would complement the firm's existing US clinical development support service offering in Skokie, which consists of a small-scale manufacturing facility that employs 70 people.
'We believe that this project represents a win-win scenario for the residents of Des Plaines and Vetter alike,' said Vetter Managing Director Peter Soelkner. 'For us, it would be the next step in our plan for continuous growth. Several of our customers have requested commercial manufacturing resources both in US and Europe for their multi-faceted market production needs. Being in a continuous dialogue with them, such a facility would enlarge Vetter’s geographical manufacturing opportunities, and thus, increase our customer’s flexibility.'
