According to The Freeport News, Bahama-based PharmaChem Technologies and Gilead Sciences broke ground on a two-and-a-half year multi-million dollar expansion project.

The expansion to the facility is expected to cost about $130 million and once complete will see PharmaChem increase its head count from about 130 staff members to 220.

The new state-of-the-art multi-tronic facility will support Gilead’s growing pipeline of drugs and has been jointly designed by both Gilead and PharmaChem, whose relationship dates back more than a decade.

According to the companies, since its establishment in 2004, the facility has become one of the key suppliers of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and registered intermediates for retroviral therapies used to help people with HIV and AIDS. The facility currently produces Gilead’s Tenofovir Disoproxil Fumarate (TDF), a backbone of HIV treatment around the world, reaching 160 countries.

Last year PharmaChem was one of Gilead’s largest suppliers of TDF, manufacturing a quantity to treat 950,000 people.