Germany-based pharmaceutical company, Boehringer Ingelheim, will establish a new European pilot plant facility, designed to increase development of new active pharmaceutical ingredients.
The technical centre, expected to cost in excess of €50m, will be located in Biberach, Germany, and represents the company's largest research and development site.
Boehringer has described its research pipeline as "well-stocked" and the facility is expected to ramp up the production of new compounds in order to ensure that sufficient quantities are available for upcoming clinical studies.
Boehringer Ingelheim board of managing director's chairman, Andreas Barner, said: "In order to continue offering new products in therapeutic areas with significant unmet medical needs, such as diabetes, cancer, hepatitis C, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and asthma, we need to invest now."
The 2,700m² facility is expected to be completed in early 2014 and will comprise 15 chemical reactors with volumes of 100l to 300l, as well as four manufacturing bays, significantly increasing the company's production capacity.
Boehringer Ingelheim development corporate senior vice president, Dr Wolfgang Baiker, said: "The pilot facility will make it possible to produce sufficient amounts to provide active ingredients from the global group's own research and development for later phases."
Image: A draft design of the new technical centre, located in Biberach, Germany. Image courtesy of: Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH.
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