Fresenius Kabi has invested over USD 250 M to expand the company’s Melrose Park, Illinois, production unit. The expansion was built as a stand-alone building with separate utilities and linked in 2020 to the existing 125,000 ft²/11,613 square meter site, with a total floor space of 430,000 ft²/40,000 square meter. The new facility is equipped with a state-of-the-art urban manufacturing campus, fully automated aseptic filling lines, and sophisticated isolator technology, as well as expanded lyophilization capabilities and formulation areas.
A total of five integrated aseptic filling lines and four lyophilizers with automated loading and unloading have been installed in the expansion, including one cytotoxic line, one high-potency and hormone line (maximum OEL = 0.2 µg/m3), and three general product lines to increase manufacturing capacities by more than 100 million vials. Today, six aseptic filling lines, six lyophilizers, and one terminal sterilizer in the existing site produce more than 160 million vials each year for distribution in the US and Canada.