Spanish plasma pharmaceuticals group Grifols announced on Tuesday that it will invest $360 million to expand its manufacturing capacity for plasma-derived therapies.
Four new plants in the United States, Ireland and Spain will increase the company’s capacity for plasma fractionation and purification of the resulting proteins.
Plasma fractionation is the process of extracting the different fractions that contain proteins with therapeutic uses. These fractions are then purified and sterilized in specific plants for each of the proteins obtained.
The company plans to build a plasma fractionation plant and a purification plant for intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) in Clayton, North Carolina; an albumin purification plant in Dublin, Ireland; and another plant for alpha 1-antitrypsin at Parets del VallÈs in Barcelona, Spain. This calls for an investment of $210 million in the U.S., $85 million in Ireland and $65 million in Spain.
The new purification plant at Clayton will process the fraction II+III from the new fractionation plant to obtain between 25 and 30 million grams/year of IVIG, marketed under the Gamunex brand.
The purification plant for albumin at Grifols’ Dublin facility will produce between 130 and 150 million grams/year of albumin (Albutein) from fraction V.
At Parets del VallÈs, Grifols is constructing an additional purification plant to expand its capacity to produce alpha 1-antitrypsin (Prolastin).
Grifols estimates that this increase in production capacity will be sufficient to meet the growing demand for plasma-derived products until 2028-2030.
