The technology group Sartorius has officially opened a new building for the manufacture of filters and single-use bags for biopharmaceutical applications at its Yauco, Puerto Rico site. After approximately one year of construction, the new building was officially dedicated in the presence of the governor of Puerto Rico, Luis Fortuño, the Secretary of the Economic Development and Commerce Department, José Pérez-Riera, as well as numerous guests from the local political and business community.

The global pharma supplier and provider of laboratory equipment invested around 16 million euros into the expansion of its production capacity in Puerto Rico. Covering an area of 5,000 square meters, the new eco-friendly building complex provides space for two new clean rooms for filter and bag manufacture, labs and offices. By the end of the year, bag manufacturing operations will be moved from their present site in Concord, California, to Yauco, Puerto Rico. There, Sartorius added about 120 new employees and thus nearly doubled its workforce. The Concord site is due to close by the end of 2012.

By extending its plant, Sartorius is responding to the biopharma industry's growing demand for single-use products. Filters are used in this industry to sterile-filter biopharmaceuticals or to obtain active pharmaceutical ingredients from liquids. Single-use bags are employed as flexible containers for preparing nutrients, installed in single-use bioreactors, or utilized for transporting and storing biological active ingredients. Filters and bags are increasingly being requested as combined, sterile-packaged and ready-to-connect single-use assemblies.

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A Profile of Sartorius

The Sartorius Group is a leading international laboratory and process technology provider covering the segments of Bioprocess Solutions, Lab Products & Services and Industrial Weighing. In 2011, the technology group earned sales revenue of 733.1 million euros. Founded in 1870, the Goettingen-based company currently employs more than 5,000 persons. The major areas of activity of its Bioprocess Solutions segment cover filtration, fluid management, fermentation, cell cultivation and purification, and focus on production processes in the biopharmaceutical industry. The Lab Products & Services segment primarily manufactures laboratory instruments and consumables. Industrial Weighing concentrates on weighing, monitoring and control applications in the manufacturing processes of the food, chemical and pharma sectors. Sartorius has its own production facilities in Europe, Asia and America as well as sales subsidiaries and local commercial agencies in more than 110 countries.