Grifols invests €5 millions in new plant in Brazil
This Catalan biotechnology firm is thus boosting their international expansion and responding to demand in Southern America.
By Biocat
Grifols, the third most important manufacturer of plasma-derived biological drugs in the world based in Sant Cugat del Vallès, has begun construction on a new 26,000-square-meter facility near the city of Curitiba, capital of the state of Paraná (Brazil). The new 26,000-square-meter plant will produce bags for extracting, separating, preserving and transfusing blood components like plasma, red blood cells and platelets.
In the first phase, Grifols will start up a dosage and assembly line allowing them to produce up to two million kits per year, which can be increased to four million incorporating a second manufacturing line. The Catalan biotechnology group will also have a warehouse for raw materials and finished products with a capacity to hold more than 1,250 units. Initially the project will complement the company’s plant in Múrcia, but in the long term the two centers are expected to work independently.
The construction process, which is expected to be completed in late 2014, will be carried out through a new company Gri-Cei SA, held jointly by Grifols, 60%, and the local company Exportaçâo e Importaçâo de Materiais Médicos, 40%.
This news is particularly significant for two main reasons: first, given the elevated investment of €5 millions the biotech firm is devoting to the project; and second, because once construction is finished, the plant will meet demand in Brazil and Latin America for these specialized products, distributing them both locally and around the world.
Moreover, the project will help boost Grifols’ image and commercial presence throughout South America, as well as pushing forward their global expansion plan in the company’s hospital division, which has so far focused mainly on the United States and Canada.
Grifols has eight industrial plants around the world: in Catalonia, Múrcia, Mexico, Switzerland and Australia and three in the United States. In 2012, as published in El País, the biotechnology firm increased sales 46%, for a total of €2,620.9 millions, and quintupled profit, going from €50.3 millions in 2011 to €256.7 millions in 2012. These results are due in large part to their acquisition of US competitor Telecris in 2011.
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