BRIEF—Eisai completes oral solid dose production facility in China

Japanese pharma major Eisai says its Chinese subsidiary, Eisai China Inc (ECI) has completed construction of a new oral solid dose (OSD) production facility and an administration building at the site of its new Suzhou plant located within the Suzhou Industrial Park.

Aiming to further expand its contribution to patients in China, Eisai has been working to establish a new Suzhou plant on a new industrial site more than five times larger than the current Suzhou (OSD production facility to further strengthen the stable supply chain as well as improve production efficiency.

ECI established a parenteral facility in November 2014, where it manufactures the injection formulation of Methycobal, a cobalamin, a form of vitamin B₁₂.

The newly-completed OSD production facility has a capacity (formulation of approximately 3 billion tablets/packaging for approximately 5 billion tablets per year) is approximately double that of the current Suzhou Plant.

Operations are expected to commence in the second half of fiscal 2018, and the new OSD facility will handle the formulation and packaging of oral solid dose products such as Methycobal, Aricept (donepezil) and Pariet (rabeprazole) for the domestic Chinese market.

The current plant will be closed after operations fully commence at the new Suzhou Plant's OSD production facility.