BARCELONA, Spain, Feb. 18, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — Grifols, the
Spanish group which specializes in the hospital-pharmaceutical
sector and is one of the world’s leading producers of plasma
products, will shortly start construction of a new plant
representing an investment of 20 million euros that will employ
about 100 people, as soon as it obtains local permits and licenses.
The new facilities will have the capacity to fractionate 1 million
liters of plasma a year (with potential to expand to 2 million),
allowing the group to double its existing fractionation capacity in
Spain. The Grifols plant in Los Angeles, California, currently has
a capacity of 2.2 million liters, giving the group total capacity
of 6.3 million liters in 2014.
The construction work is scheduled to take 18 months, after
which the process of obtaining licenses from the FDA (Food &
Drug Administration) in the United States and from the EMA
(European Medicines Agency) will begin. This is expected to take no
more than two years, as the new plant will fractionate plasma
through to the intermediate product stage. The purification,
inactivation and sterile filling stages for the different proteins
will be performed at Grifols’ existing facilities at Parets del
Valles, which have already been adapted to absorb this increased
level of production.
The new plant will use the very latest technology and will make
maximum use of automation. Grifols Engineering S.A., a group
company which specializes in the engineering of biotechnological
and pharmaceutical processes, has designed the new facilities and
will manage the construction project. The plant will also serve as
a model for the future construction of another fractionation plant
in the United States (San Marcos, Texas) due to start in 2014, and
delivering a maximum capacity of 4 million liters.
The new plant forms part of the 433 million euro investment plan
for the period 2008-2012, approved at the end of 2007 by the Board
of
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