Pharmaceutical and biotechnology giant, CordenPharma, has unveiled plans to expand its large-scale peptide manufacturing site, Greenfield facility, in Basel, Switzerland. The construction of the new peptide platform will cost CordenPharma more than €500 million.
CordenPharma’s Greenfield facility expansion factsheet
Location: Basel region in Muttenz, Switzerland
Client: CordenPharma
Project scope: Expansion and capacity addition
Cost: €500 million +
Developer: N/A
Start of construction date: 2025
Completion of construction date: 2027
Facility operational date: 2028
New facility reactor capacity: 5,000 L +
The outlook
The Greenfield facility expansion project is part of CordenPharma’s massive €1 billion + investment for construction projects across its more than 10 facilities globally. This will take precedence over the course of three years, and will target a bulk of its technology platforms.
Why now?
The latest €500 million + investment for the Greenfield facility in Switzerland is part of the pharmaceutical company’s goal of expanding their Peptide Platform business by 2028. Sales target stands at more than €1 billion.
The Greenfield facility
The new facility in the Basel region in Muttenz will be located in the European pharma hub, Getec Park. Sitting 8 km outside of Basel, the strategic location for the expansion of CordenPharma’s Greenfield facility was based on several key factors.
These include the already established large-scale chemical manufacturing facilities in the area, and the existing infrastructure implicated in peptide manufacturing. This will include resources like materials, and other technologies and their processes. Also sought by CordenPharma for the expansion of the Greenfield facility in Switzerland is the good and robust transportation network and favorable logistics. This will ensure efficiency in the supply of the company’s pharmaceutical products.
CordenPharma’s Greenfied facility in Switzerland will also feature specs in automation and improved digitalization. Also included the development plans are the manufacturing platforms that will cumulatively have a Solid Phase Peptide Synthesis (SPPS) reactor capacity of more than 5,000 liters.
The construction project will also create about 300 jobs, alongside stimulating growth to the region’s economy, and Getec Park’s innovation.
CordenPharma’s Greenfield facility and the Getec Park pharma hub
Another factor that cannot be understated in the more than €500 million investment to expand CordenPharma’s Greenfield facility is the essence of the “pharma hub”. This is a pool steaming with talent in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors in the whole of Europe.
Not to be left out is, of course the talk of town, “sustainabilty”. There is a surrounding industrial park in the facility’s vicinity in the Getec Park pharma hub and this will be paramount in multiple ways. Closed loop energy cycles – with the same call for the industrial materials, and game-changing waste-to-value streams are some of the faces representing the doors to net-zero in CordenPharma’s Greenfield facility expansion project.
The Switzerland-based pharmaceutical company is also co-currently expanding its Boulder facility in the United States at Colorado. Boulder (formerly Pfizer/Hospira) is expected to have doubled its SPPS reactor capacity at more than 42,000 liters by project completion date in 2028.
