Good Medicine: Europe Set for $4 Billion of Investments in Second-Quarter 2017 Science Capital/MRO Project Starts

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Reported by Annette Kreuger, Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Much like its North American brethren, the European Pharmaceutical & Biotech Industry, better described as the Life Science Industry, includes the development and production of pharmaceuticals, biologicals, medical devices and cosmetics. Continuing to return a healthy capital expenditure investment profile, Europe's volume of project activity continues to impress.

Click on the image at right for a graph detailing European Pharmaceutical-Biotech kickoffs planned for second-quarter 2017 by region.

The individual projects range from $1 million for a scheduled maintenance project at a lenses and medical device plant in Cork, Ireland, all the way up to a whopping $1 billion to build an antiproton and ion research particle accelerator in Darmstadt, Germany. With the $4 billion divided among 121 projects, the average total investment value (TIV) of each of the European projects is a healthy $33 million. Even allowing for the outlier $1 billion accelerator, the quarter is a strong one.

All of this activity is not entirely unexpected. The very nature of the projects is a great representation of the industry's diverse and global pedigree. From contact lenses to biological drug development and production, the majority of the major companies reported on in Europe have a strong North American presence as well. In the mature Western European market, the types of projects are similar as well.

A sampling from the first-quarter projects includes a $261 million plasma protein therapeutics unit addition in Marburg, Germany, tagged by the company as Phoenix NBF245/m245. Located at CSL Behring GmbH's (Victoria, Australia) existing plant, the project seeks to double the site's existing production capacity of plasma-derived coagulation products.

Marburg is popular with the industry, attracting $173 million from GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE:GSK) (Brentford, England) to add a meningitis-B vaccine production unit. The project should kick off in June and when operational in 2020, will help the company meet market demand.

Takeda Pharmaceuticals (Osaka, Japan) tapped Clondalkin, Ireland, as the site to invest $43 million for the construction of a high-containment capsule production unit. The facility will be dedicated the production of Ninlaro, an oral medication used to treat multiple myeloma, a form of blood cancer.

As always, there remains a chance that a percentage of these projects will be delayed or put on hold. Nothing is ever definite until construction begins--and even then, changes happen. Each project will be tracked and updated accordingly. Some may be dropped altogether, while new ones are uncovered.

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