West celebrates groundbreaking of Waterford manufacturing facility

West Pharmaceutical Services, a global leader in innovative packaging components and drug delivery systems, has marked the start of construction for the company's new pharmaceutical component manufacturing facility with a groundbreaking ceremony in Waterford, Ireland. The event celebrated West's continued investment in Ireland and commitment to the local Waterford community.

The Waterford facility will manufacture packaging components for insulin injector cartridges and other high-value packaging components for injectable drugs to meet increasing customer demand. The company intends to employ approximately 150 people in engineering, production and other positions by the commencement of operations in late 2018.

The 95,000ft² (8,800m²) facility will be situated on a 44-acre site. The site has been cleared for construction and activity will commence with civil work in mid-July. It will function as a centre of excellence for West's proprietary elastomeric sheeting, which is used to package insulin for use in pen injectors.

Additionally, the facility will include manufacturing capacity for additional proprietary injectable component product lines, which are integral to the packaging of many injectable medicines. Two key product lines are Westar RU components, which are delivered sterile and ready-to-use to customers for their aseptic filling operations; as well as NovaPure components, West's highest quality packaging component line.

'Packaging systems play an important role in ensuring the purity, long-term stability and efficacy of injectable drug products. The advanced components that will be produced at our state-of-the-art Waterford plant will help our pharmaceutical and biotechnology customers deliver their products to patients,' said Eric Green, Chief Executive Officer at West.

'We are very fortunate to have found an ideal location with a highly skilled life sciences workforce and local government officials and agencies who are true partners, working together with our team to help us fulfill our vision to create a healthier world.'