Sandoz to invest €50 million in antibiotic manufacturing facility

Sandoz, a leading antibiotics producer has announced its €50 million investment to increase Europe’s manufacturing capacity of finished dosage form (FDF) penicillin, the most common form of antibiotic worldwide, to enhance global manufacturing capacity of amoxicillin and other major penicillin products.

The new antibiotic manufacturing facility is part of a €100 million strategy to fund new manufacturing technology for producing oral amoxicillin active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) in Kundl, Austria. The new building will be connected to the existing production site and will focus on bulk formulation and fill-finish activities for penicillins.

Last year, Sandoz announced it will invest €50 million into production of sterile API products in Palafolls, Spain. Sandoz’s total investment for its European antibiotics network is over €250 million.

Benefits of the Austrian antibiotic manufacturing facility

Automation, API manufacturing technology and simplified processing will help integrate the current multi-step production process into one procedure in a single location. This will boost capacity and supply reliability. Thus, the facility will support the double-digit increase of future penicillin output capacity.

Sandoz CEO Richard Saynor asserted: “… we are seeing rapidly increasing demand [for antibiotics] following the unprecedented market swings of the past few years. This investment will help meet growing patient need, to support the creation of hundreds of new jobs and to partially offset the impact of high energy prices by lowering unit costs.”

Saynor added: “Minimising production costs, particularly in the face of soaring energy costs in Europe, is key… producers have to supply at fixed price levels, regardless of supply and demand changes. We urgently need to change the operating framework, to introduce basic concepts such as inflation-linked pricing and tenders with criteria that go beyond price.”

Sandoz Global Operations Head Glenn Gerecke stated: “This new building, which will be ready for operation by early 2024, [will contribute] to [the] security of supply for critical penicillin medicines.”