Fresenius Kabi broke ground recently on a $250 million manufacturing campus. The development in Chicago’s near west suburbs will transform the current plant into a state-of-the-art pharmaceutical manufacturing campus. It comes following an extensive intergovernmental agreement worked out last year that provided for tax incentives and land use controls.

Fresenius Kabi is a global pharmaceutical company that specializes in medicines and technologies for infusion, transfusion and clinical nutrition. The company’s global headquarters is in Bad Homburg, Germany. Today, the company employs more than 1,700 people in Illinois.

The current Melrose Park site manufactures generic, sterile injectable pharmaceuticals used in hospitals and clinics for chronically and critically ill patients throughout the U.S. The expansion will create multiple new buildings connected to the existing manufacturing site and will feature fully automated aseptic filling lines using state-of-the-art isolator technology, expanded lyophilization (freeze-drying) capabilities, formulation areas, a dedicated warehouse for raw materials and components and an administration building with conference center, laboratories, office space and cafeteria.

Fresenius Kabi will invest the $250 million in the project over the next decade. The project is expected to be completed in 2026.

“This project will create many opportunities for our employees, who work around-the-clock to produce life-saving medicines for patients who need them,” said Steven Nowicki, senior vice president of global operations for North America, pharmaceuticals division, Fresenius Kabi. “Our expectation is that the positive effects of this extensive construction project and our continued growth will benefit the people and business community of Melrose Park and Illinois.”