Grifols, which has a major pharmaceutical plant in Clayton, announced plans Wednesday to investment $360 million to expand its manufacturing capacities in Clayton and three other facilities worldwide. The increases in production capacity are expected to cover the growing demand for plasma-derived products until 2028-2030.
The plan including the construction of four plants: a plasma fractionation plant and a purification plant for intravenous immunoglobulin in Clayton, an albumin purification plant in Ireland, and another plant for alpha 1-antitrypsin in Spain. The investment allocation is $210 million in the US, $85 million in Ireland and $65 million in Spain.
Grifols has a direct commercial presence in 30 countries and sales in more than 100 countries.
In Johnston County, Grifols plans to construct a new plasma fractionation plant at their industrial complex, with a fractionation capacity of 6 million liters per year. The construction will begin the first quarter of 2017 and is scheduled to start production in early 2022.
Plasma fractionation is the process of extracting the different fractions that contain the proteins with therapeutic uses. Afterwards, these fractions are purified and sterilized in specific plants for each of the proteins obtained.
A new plasma fractionation plant for intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) in Clayton is scheduled to come into operation in late 2021.
In preparation for more raw materials, two logistics and plasma warehousing centers have been constructed, one at the Clayton complex, with a capacity to store 3.7 million liters, and the other in Dublin with a capacity for 800 thousand liters. Both facilities are scheduled to be fully operational by the end of 2016
In 2015, Grifols opened a new 155,000 square foot $370 million facility in Clayton that doubled their capacity. The company has more than 14,700 employees worldwide.
Last month, Grifols was named the 2015 Johnston Community College Industry Partner of the Year.
