Fresenius Kabi, a Lake Zurich, Illinois-headquartered specialty and generic pharmaceuticals company and a subsidiary of Fresenius KGaA, a Bad Homburg, Germany-headquartered healthcare group, has begun construction for a $250-million expansion of its pharmaceutical operations in Melrose Park, Illinois. The company is a provider in the US of generic sterile injectable medicines.

The company also announced that is it investing EUR 6 million ($7.1 million) to expand its logistic center at is production site in Friedberg, Germany. The building will be expanded by 4,500 square meters (about 50,000 square feet). The expansion should be completed by early 2019. The logistics center is the international hub for the company’s entire product line of bottles and bags with infusion solutions, blood-volume substitution agents, and liquid drugs.

Fresenius Kabi is also proceeding with a large-scale acquisition. In April 2017, Fresenius agreed to acquire Akorn, a Lake Forest, Illinois-headquartered specialty generic pharmaceutical company in a deal totaling approximately $4.74 billion. In addition to gaining Akorn’s product portfolio, Fresenius Kabi, which provides contract sterile manufacturing services through its Fresenius Kabi Product Partnering division, boosted its contract sterile manufacturing capabilities with the acquisition, which also offers that service. Akorn has five manufacturing facilities in Decatur, Illinois; Somerset, New Jersey; Amityville, New York; Hettlingen, Switzerland; and Paonta Sahib, India.

The company also recently closed on its acquisition of the biosimilars business of Merck KGaA.

Source: Fresenius Kabi (sterile manufacturing) and Fresenius Kabi (logistics center)