EVANSVILLE - Berry Global Group says its will begin product production at its new manufacturing facility and healthcare center of excellence in Bangalore, India, as early as April 2023.
Leveraging the company’s innovative research and development (R&D) solutions, this new Greenfield expansion project is expected to improve regional and global access to advanced healthcare solutions, provide customers with the necessary volume to support the forecasted growth for Asia’s domestic healthcare market, and boost India’s domestic economy by employing more than 500 new team members over the next eight years in Bangalore, commonly referred to as India’s Silicon Valley.
“Healthcare companies have limited access to regional expertise and global capabilities needed to provide patient populations in Asia with modern healthcare solutions at scale,” said Tom Salmon, Berry Global's Chairman and CEO. “Our new facility and global healthcare center of excellence in Bangalore will support Asia’s growing demand for healthcare products, create new jobs, and, most importantly, benefit the lives of patient populations who have historically gone untreated and underdiagnosed.”
According to Berry, the new Bangalore plant will improve global patient access to products for the Inhalation, Nasal, Ophthalmic, Dispensing, and Self-injection industries. Furthermore, the new Berry Global Healthcare R&D Center of Excellence will support the development of innovative solutions for existing and new applications to improve medicine administration and functionality, while helping customers’ meet ambitious sustainability goals.
The R&D center will be launching up to seven new products and projects in 2023 ranging from DPI Inhalers to plastics caps and closures. Included among these products will be Berry’s Pneumohaler, a lightweight, breath-actuated, multidose inhaler dose counter for the control and treatment of Asthma and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). Several new medical packaging products will be available for sampling with industrial prototypes in March 2023.
Located in close proximity to some of the largest, generic pharmaceutical companies, the Bangalore site's ability to cater pharmaceutical packaging to U.S. regulatory requirements will enable the local manufacture of healthcare products, at a global scale. The site will use ISO class clean rooms, as well as leverage Berry’s experience submitting Active Drug Master Files (DMFs) to regulatory agencies, and providing active DMF and filling for regulated markets.
“Improved drug affordability and greater access to modern healthcare solutions are more important than ever in India, one of the most populated countries in the world. Our new facility and R&D center will benefit the domestic economy by creating new jobs and the regional economy overall by improving healthcare access and providing locally manufactured products,” said Jean-Marc Galvez, President of Consumer Packaging International.
Berry’s new Bangalore site has also been constructed with a focus on sustainability. The site will source the equivalent of around 90% of the facility’s electricity from solar and wind power while it has also achieved the International Sustainability and Carbon Certificate (ISCC) Plus designation. ISCC Plus certified facilities support customer demand for more sustainable packaging by ensuring materials meet the ISCC’s standards for recycled, renewable, and recycled-renewable materials. This provides traceability along the supply chain and verifies certified companies meet high environmental and social standards.
Several products developed at the Bangalore site will be available for sampling at the 2023 Pharmapack Paris exhibition. These products will include Berry’s innovative, patient-centric packaging and dispensing solutions, as well drug delivery devices for medicines and pharmaceuticals that meet the growing demand for sustainability and digitalization. Among these products will be Berry’s Activated Rispharm (with a Risdrop nozzle), a recyclable, multidose antimicrobial dropper that helps prevent eye microbial infections and produces 16X less waste than a unidose dropper. Activated Rispharm has received a gold rating for functionality from CPHI China.