Grifols, is a global healthcare company focused on developing plasma medicines, diagnostics systems, and hospital pharmacy products and headquartered in Barcelona, is investing $370 million for a new plasma-fractionation facility, North Fractionation Facility (NFF), in Clayton, North Carolina.

The 155,000 square-foot plasma fractionation facility will be fully operational in 2015 with over 200 employees. Grifols also has a corporate office in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, and currently has 2,300 employees in North Carolina. Other Griflos’ sites in the US include: a corporate office and manufacturing facilities in Los Angeles, California; testing labs in San Marcos and Austin, Texas; and 150 plasma donation centers across the United States. Additionally, the company has manufacturing facilities in  San Francisco, producing antigens for immunological diagnostics, as well as the Grifols Academy of Plasmapheresis, an education and training facility headquartered in Glendale, Arizona. In total, Grifols employs over 9,600 people in the US, representing approximately 73% of its 13,200 employees worldwide.

Fractionation is the first step in the production of plasma-derived therapies, which involves subjecting plasma to various changes of temperature and chemical conditions, causing each of the proteins with therapeutic properties to separate out. These proteins have to be purified and formulated before they can be used as medicines. The medicines manufactured by Grifols from plasma include: immunoglobulin, for the treatment of primary immune deficiency and chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP); factor VIII, for the treatment of hemophilia A; albumin, to re-establish and maintain blood volume; and alpha-1 antitrypsin for the treatment of genetic emphysema.

In a press statement Grifols said it will allocate more than EUR 600 million ($817 million) to manufacturing facilities between 2014 and 2016. The $370 million invested in NFF at its Clayton facility is part of the company’s capital investment plan the period 2012-2014. In addition to the NFF, a substantial portion of the investment will go toward\ the expansion of the company’s albumin purification plants in Los Angeles and Clayton, and also toward a new warehouse at Clayton´s complex. In Spain, the company is constructing a new alpha-1 antitrypsin purification area in the Parets del Vallès (Barcelona) complex.

Source: Grifols