Sartorius officially opened a new building for the manufacture of filters and single-use bags for biopharmaceutical applications at its Yauco, Puerto Rico site. The firm has invested around €16 million into the expansion of its production capacity in the country. The new 5,000-square-meter building complex provides space for two new clean rooms for filter and bag manufacture, labs, and offices.
The firm says that by the end of the year, bag manufacturing operations will be moved from their present site in Concord, California, to Yauco, Puerto Rico, where Sartorius added about 120 new employees. The Concord site is due to close by the end of this year.
Sartorius says that by extending its plant, it is responding to the biopharma industry’s growing demand for single-use products. Filters and bags are increasingly being requested as combined, sterile-packaged, and ready-to-connect single-use assemblies, Sartorius notes.