Baxter BioPharma invests $50M in fill/finish manufacturing plant

Baxter (NYSE:BAX) is planning on spending $50 million to expand a sterile fill/finish manufacturing facility in Bloomington, Ind. 

Baxter’s BioPharma Solutions business will manage the site, including a new 25,000-ft² warehouse, a new filling line for flexible plastic containers and a high-speed automated syringe fill line. 

Baxter hopes to wrap up manufacturing at the site in 2021 and to use the facility for contract manufacturing in 2022. 

The company anticipates hiring approximately 100 new workers to staff the site. 

Currently, the Baxter BioPharma site contract manufactures products for roughly 25 pharmaceutical and biotechnology clients. 

Also based at the site is the company’s Lyophilization Center of Excellence, which specializes in freeze-drying.

In its third-quarter earnings call, the company announced that its pharmaceutical business had increased low single digits while its medication delivery business declined by a similar amount. “Performance in both businesses reflect lower rates of emergency room utilization and associated hospital admissions for a range of acute and chronic conditions,” said Baxter’s CEO, Joe Almeida.