The Japanese pharmaceutical company AGC Pharma has inaugurated its new production plant in Malgrat de Mar (Barcelona) – an initiative put forward in April 2022, when the investment was valued at 100 million euros. This starts a new chapter for the company in Spain, which began with the acquisition in 2019 of Malgrat Pharma Chemicals, a Spanish company specialising in the manufacture of synthetic active pharmaceutical ingredients.

For the company, this is an important milestone in its history as a CDMO, i.e. specialising in development and contract manufacturing for other pharmaceutical companies. The aim of the transaction was to expand its production capacity by 30%. The new plant will in addition contribute to strengthening the company’s global capabilities.

Much more than physical expansion
Following the inauguration, AGC Pharma describes the new facility as “much more than physical expansion. This represents our long-term dedication to improving people’s lives by developing and manufacturing active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and high potency APIs (HPAPIs) – the essential building blocks of life-saving and life-enhancing medicines around the world.”

In line with its commitment to health, innovation and sustainability, the company’s CEO, Jun Kurihara, provided further explanation during the inauguration, “Behind every API we produce, there is a patient waiting for treatment, a family waiting for a cure, a life that can be improved”.

An extension of 7,500 square metres
Following the construction of the new facility, AGC Pharma has gained 7,500 square metres of floor space and has installed new reactors ranging from 1.5 and 7.5 cubic metres in volume, which will enable it to start production of HPAPIs. When the announcement was made three years ago, it was estimated that around 100 new jobs would be created.

The initiative was launched at a time when the small molecule CDMO market was growing by over 7% per year, a fact that was driving even faster growth in contract volume. With this expansion, AGC was ahead of the market in order to respond to the strong demand that was already expected in its industry at that time.

^{Photo: AGC Pharma}