West Dedicates Mfg. Plant in India

West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. has dedicated its manufacturing plant in the Sri City Special Economic Zone (SEZ), where the company plans to further expand its primary packaging for its injectable medicines business.
 
Construction on the 164,700 sq.-ft. facility began in August 2012. The site will produce seals used in primary packaging of injectable medicines manufactured by West’s customers in India and the Asia Pacific region. Future expansion plans at the site include West’s elastomer component business.
 
“West is experiencing a very exciting period of growth and business expansion in Asia and we are proud to open our first facility in India,” said Donald E. Morel, Jr., West’s chairman and chief executive officer. “With more and more pharmaceutical customers establishing operations in India, our new plant will help West meet market demand and further establishes the company’s presence in this growing and dynamic market.
  
“This investment is important to our strategy of partnering with customers in India and the Asia Pacific region to help them provide medicines to patients more efficiently, reliably and safely,” said Warwick Bedwell, president, Pharmaceutical Packaging Systems, Asia Pacific Region. “With the facility complete, we anticipate a reduction in lead times for supply to our customers in India. By leveraging our global sourcing activities and process engineering expertise, we expect to be able to carefully manage the overall costs of production.”
 
The company’s presence in the region also includes: a plant in Singapore, two plants in Qingpu, China, and sales offices in Australia, China, India and Singapore.