Abbott Laboratories to build biotech plant in Puerto Rico

Abbott Laboratories is to build a $350m (€356m) biotechnology manufacturing plant in Barceloneta, Puerto Rico. The project is part of the company's plan to ensure long-term production capacity for commercial biologic products, and follows a recent expansion of the company's biologics manufacturing capacity at the Abbott Bioresearch Center in Worcester, Massachusetts.

The new facility expands the pharmaceutical manufacturing capabilities of Abbott Puerto Rico Operations to include biotechnology with the existing technologies of fermentation and chemical synthesis.

The plant, which will create more than 200 permanent jobs, will use innovative biotechnology manufacturing and production technologies to produce multiple biologic products. The first product to be manufactured there will be Humira, also known as D2E7 (adalimumab), the investigational compound for rheumatoid arthritis currently under review by the US FDA and the European Agency for the Evaluation of Medicinal Products.

The current biologic manufacturing and production capacity in Worcester is prepared to handle anticipated investigational and market demands for current products in development until the new plant is operational and approved for production.

'Abbott is pleased to build a biotechnology manufacturing plant in Barceloneta where we've had a successful and productive operation for years,' said Lance B. Wyatt, senior vice president of Abbott's specialty products division, who oversees the company's Puerto Rico operations. Construction will begin immediately.