Vetter, a global contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) for development, aseptic filling and final packaging of injectables, has initiated operations in its expanded Visual Inspection and Logistics Center located in Ravensburg.
The enlargement represents an investment of approximately 100 million euros ($107 million), and bundles capacity for final product inspection and logistics in one cutting-edge site. By finalizing the second construction stage of the site that was initially put into operation five years ago, the CDMO has more than doubled the capacity for state-of-the-art quality control, cold storage and room temperature storage. Given the increasing industry-specific requirements emanating from customer and regulatory side, the company can now provide a more efficient and flexible supply chain processes.
The expanded Center, referred to as Ravensburg Vetter West, is located on approximately 50,000 sq m (538,000 sq ft) of floorspace and includes a 35,000 pallet warehouse capacity for storing pharmaceuticals in refrigeration or room temperature conditions.
The capacities for chest freezers, incubation chambers, and constant climate chambers have also been increased, as have the visual inspection capacities of filled units, which can be realized in either manual or automatic mode. This allows Vetter to react with greater flexibility to individual market and customer needs. The center also contains a support materials warehouse with corresponding safety installations as well as a new packaging-check laboratory and the company’s central archive. Additionally, the number of office workspaces were increased.
By the end of 2017, the CDMO will relinquish its existing Holbeinstrasse site for visual inspection and logistics. Its employees and departments will gradually be relocated to Ravensburg Vetter West, resulting in a working staff of approximately 800 employees.
“The requirements regarding final product inspection as well as transportation and storage of (bio-)pharmaceutical materials are ever-increasing,” says Vetter Managing Director Thomas Otto. “Concentrating our supply chain processes in one site enables bundled resources for even more efficient and highly secured logistic and quality control procedures.”
