Eisai’s New Oral Solid Dose Production Facility, Suzhou

Eisai China’s new oral solid dose production facility is located within the Suzhou Industrial Park in Suzhou, China. Image courtesy of Eisai Co Ltd.

The total site area of Eisai’s new Suzhou plant is approximately 134,000m². Image courtesy of Eisai China.

Ground-breaking ceremony for the oral solid dose facility was held in May 2016. Image courtesy of Eisai China Inc.

Eisai China has built a new oral solid dose (OSD) production facility at its new Suzhou plant in China.

The new OSD production facility will replace an existing building at the Suzhou site.

A ground-breaking ceremony for the project took place in May 2016, while construction was completed in January 2018. Operations are expected to be started in June 2018.

The new facility will enable Eisai to strengthen its in-house domestic production system in China.

Eisai’s new oral solid dose production facility location

The new OSD facility is located near the 168 Xingpu Road within the Suzhou Industrial Park, which is situated in the Chinese coastal province of Jiangsu, Suzhou city, China.

The Suzhou Industrial Park is an economic co-operation project between China and Singapore. It covers a 288km² area and provides easy access to various rail and motorway networks.

Details of the new oral solid dose production facility

The new OSD production facility is five times bigger than the existing plant. It includes three floors with total floor space of 20,240m².

The plant is designed and built according to Chinese good manufacturing practices (GMP) and international GMP standards. It also includes energy-saving features.

It will supply Eisai China’s high-quality products to the Chinese market and other Asian countries in the future.

Other facilities at the new Suzhou plant

Eisai’s new Suzhou plant is built on a total site area of 134,000m². It comprises the OSD facility, an administration building and a parenteral production facility.

Construction of the parenteral production facility was completed in November 2014. The two-storey facility covers an area of 5,690m² and manufactures the injection formulation Methycobal^®.

The administration building is a two-storey facility with a floor space of 2,230m². It features offices, meeting rooms and a cafeteria.

The new OSD facility is expected to serve as a global innovation centre for Eisai in the future.

Products and production capacity of the new OSD facility

The new oral solid dose facility is capable of handling the formulation and packaging of OSD products such as Methycobal^®, Aricept^® and Pariet^® for the Chinese market. It will also be involved in the packaging of imported products.

The production capacity of the facility is more than double that of the existing plant in Suzhou. The new facility will have an annual production capacity of three billion formulated tablets and packaging capacity of five billion tablets.

Marketing commentary on Eisai China

Founded in 1996, Eisai China is a pharmaceutical materials manufacturing company and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Eisai Co, which is based in Tokyo, Japan.

Eisai began expanding to China with the establishment of Shenyang Eisai Pharmaceutical. This was followed by Eisai Suzhou Pharmaceutical in Suzhou Industrial Park, which is now named Eisai China.

Eisai China promotes more than ten medicines in China, covering the central nervous system (CNS), the digestive system and the endocrine and orthopaedics systems. The company currently employs 1,849 team members and recorded sales of CNY2.6bn ($4m approximately) in 2015.

The company’s sales are projected to reach CNY3bn ($4.6m) by the end of 2018.

The new OSD facility will enable the company to meet the growing demand for its OSD products while improving production efficiency and expanding its pharmaceutical supply chain.