Flush with new business, Philadelphia-based CDMO PCI Pharma Services is blueprinting multiple manufacturing outlays on both sides of the Atlantic.
PCI has “heavily invested” in new drug delivery tech at its Philadelphia headquarters, laid plans for a 545,000-square-foot expansion in Rockford, Illinois, acquired a new packaging and device assembly plant near Dublin and broken ground on another site at its CityNorth Dublin campus.
Altogether, PCI’s myriad manufacturing projects represent an investment of more than $365 million, the company said in a press release Tuesday.
The cash infusion will support both clinical and commercial assembly and packaging of advanced drug-device combination products, PCI said, placing a particular emphasis on injectables such as prefilled syringes, autoinjectors and on-body injectors.
The investment has been “anchored and funded” by recent new business and should help PCI capitalize on continued growth opportunities, the company added.
The Rockford expansion represents the crown jewel in PCI’s expansion plan.
The project will consist of 345,000 square feet of new space for advanced drug delivery injectable packaging and 130,000 square feet of extra warehouse space for products across all development phases.
The site will house more than 20 customer suites and come equipped with scalable technology for assembly and packaging of vials, prefilled syringes, autoinjectors and pen-cartridge combinations, PCI said.
The company is also carving out another 70,000 square feet at the Rockford site for packaging of more advanced and “patient-centric” drug-device combos, which will include on-body injectors.
PCI expects the Rockford expansion to come online in two phases, with operations poised to kick off there during next year’s third quarter.
Over in Ireland, meanwhile, PCI has acquired another packaging and assembly plant near Dublin that features large-scale, temperature-controlled storage capabilities. Operations there are expected to start in the coming months, PCI said. Aside from injectables, the facility will also perform commercial-scale packaging and assembly for oral solids.
PCI has separately started construction on another new assembly facility at its existing CityNorth Dublin campus. The plant, expected to commence operations in 2025’s third quarter, will also emphasize injectables as well as cold chain packaging for biologics.
PCI has a large manufacturing presence across multiple continents and countries with sites in Australia, Canada, the U.S., the U.K. and Europe.
The company has also been investing heavily in its operations in recent years.
Last spring, the CDMO unveiled plans for a $50 million expansion at the same Rockford site now slated for another upgrade. That investment went toward a new 200,000-square-foot facility to boost the plant’s capacity for injectable drug-device combination products.
Prior to that move, PCI laid out $100 million in 2022 to boost aseptic liquid fill-finish production at its Bedford, New Hampshire, facility.