Looking to significantly bolster its presence across Asia, Indian solid dosage manufacturer ACG has kicked off operations at a massive plant in Thailand.
ACG this week revealed that it’s commenced work at its new, 175,000-square-meter (1.89 million-square-foot) capsule production plant in Rayong on Thailand’s east coast. The sprawling facility, which is bigger than 32 football fields, represents the largest of its kind in the country and is expected to crank out some 20 billion hard gelatin capsules per year, ACG said in a release.
The Royang site will eventually employ around 250 workers, ACG says. Besides Thailand, the facility is poised to benefit patients and customers in countries like Indonesia, Vietnam, South Korea, Malaysia and the Philippines, according to the company.
ACG added that it also plans to secure regulatory green lights to supply capsules to China from its new facility.
Utilizing ACG’s capsule printing technology, the plant will be able to crank out capsules in a range of sizes. The facility has also been designed with future expansions in mind, ACG pointed out.
“Thailand has always been a strategic market for us, and the establishment of our Rayong facility marks another important milestone in our global journey, following our successes in Latin America and North America,” Karan Singh, managing director of ACG, said in a statement. “By establishing a local presence, we are not only enhancing our capabilities and bringing advanced technology closer to our customers but also significantly reducing delivery times to improve operational efficiency.”
ACG was founded in Mumbai, India, in 1961. The company has expanded significantly over the ensuing decades and currently touts its role in “almost every aspect of solid dosage manufacturing,” from capsule production to manufacturing machinery and protective packaging.
Meanwhile, multiple other pharma outfits have flocked to Thailand in recent years.
In June, for instance, Taiwan’s Lotus Pharmaceuticals picked up Teva’s Thailand operations for an undisclosed sum amid the Israeli drugmaker’s ongoing restructuring initiative.
Under the deal, Teva’s Thailand outfit—which includes a team of about 80 workers—is set to become a wholly owned subsidiary of Lotus, which will take over the sales and marketing of existing Teva products in the region.
Separately, SK bioscience inked a memorandum of understanding with Thailand’s Government Pharmaceutical Organization (GPO) last summer to help refine the country’s vaccine manufacturing sector.