AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals Complex, Södartälje, Sweden, Sweden

The project is a pharmaceuticals plant located at Snackviken, in Södartälje, Sweden. It is owned by AstraZeneca, which was formed by a merger of the Swedish Astra and the British Zeneca in 1999.

Södartälje was the site of Astra's headquarters until its merger with Zeneca, when the corporate headquarters were moved to London.

Södartälje is the research and development headquarters of the company and employs more than 8,000 people. About 1,600 employees are involved in the research focussed in the areas of neuroscience. The company is however planning to cut 1,400 jobs in Europe by 2013.

The investment was made necessary by the growing demand for the company's Turbuler range of asthmatic inhalers.

The pharmaceuticals complex has considerable economic importance for the surrounding area. The Turbuler plant is part of an investment programme which provided roughly 1,000 jobs over a period of four years to 2005. AstraZeneca has long been an important employer in the region, through its Astra side.

Snackviken, Sweden, plant expansion

The Snackviken plant expansion went into commercial production in 2003. The project saw construction on the plant begin in 2000. The Snackviken project involved an investment of about $94m, which was part of a wider $600m investment programme throughout the company. Head Engineering provided the project management and procurement of production lines.

The plant manufactures the asthma treatments Pulmicort and Oxis, as well as future products in AstraZeneca's respiratory pipeline.

Oxis is long-acting beta2-agonist with a fast onset of action, for once or twice-daily maintenance therapy of asthma, in addition to anti-inflammatory treatment with inhaled glucocorticosteroids.

Pulmicort is an inhaled anti-inflammatory glucocorticosteroid, primarily for once or twice-daily maintenance treatment of asthma. The Turbular product is a chlorofluorocarbon (CFC)-free, multidose dry-powder inhaler for asthmatic treatment.

Simultaneously with expanding the Turbuler production, AstraZeneca had plans to build a new tablet plant in Gartuna (also in Södartälje). The plant would have been completed in 2001 at a cost of SEK 1.4bn ($162m). Although the groundwork for the project had been completed, further work was suspended in February 2000.

The reason was a decision of the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) in the USA to allow AstraZeneca to bypass a stage in the production of Plendil ingredient metoprolol.

This created spare capacity at the group's plant in nearby Snackviken which is more economical for the company to use. A higher rate of capacity utilisation in the company's existing plants was considered cheaper than building an entirely new plant.

Projects at AstraZeneca's pharmaceuticals plant at Södartälje, Sweden

A 13,500m2 plant was built in 2003 for the production of Nexium IV. It also included a 2,400m2 microbiological analysis laboratory.

SWECO FFNS was the designer. Head Engineering validated the facility. Head Engineering also installed a -35°C emergency super cooling plant at the site. The SEK45m ($6.5m) project was completed between 2004 and 2006.

In September 2007, a new packaging line was started at the plant. It is installed with FlexPack systems and robotics automation supplied by ABB. The line reduces packaging and the time to market of an anti-inflammatory glucocorticosteroid called Rhinocort, used for the treatment of respiratory diseases.

In 2010, the end-of-line ABB Robotics pack-handling systems were installed at the facility to pack Nexium. It has four dedicated Nexium lines and blister-packing machinery supplied by Uhlmann and Bosch Packaging.