Leading pharmaceutical outsourcing services provider PCI Pharma Services (PCI) is celebrating a significant milestone with the 50th anniversary of contract packaging services at its Rockford, IL location.
Acquired in 2013 by PCI, the site was founded as Anderson Packaging / Anderson Brothers in Rockford in 1967 and has grown considerably since. The site currently employs approximately 1,600 full time associates and an additional approximately 200 temporary associates. This reflects a dramatic increase in its employment, with approximately 1,200 full time associates at this same time last year.
PCI’s Rockford site operates 7 facilities in the Rockford area, supporting packaging of Prescription drugs, Over-the-Counter medicines and Consumer Health Products, as well as significant growth in its support for Investigational medicines for Clinical Trials, for which it both packages for individual studies as well as distributes to investigational sites around the world. In both commercial and clinical therapies, PCI supports medicines destined to over 100 countries throughout the world.
“Rockford is a center of excellence for packaging services in our global supply network” notes Peg Bakken, Vice President and General Manager of the Rockford facilities. “The growth in employment and our ongoing investments at the local facilities are by virtue of strong demand for our services, supporting drug companies as they develop and commercialize lifesaving medicines.
“It is very rewarding to partner with these companies as they provide breakthrough medicines in areas such as cancer, HIV/AIDS, diabetes as well as many rare and previously untreated diseases. We engage drug companies very early in development, supporting their clinical trial activities, their FDA approval and commercial launch, as well as ongoing commercial supply that can span multiple decades. Rockford continues to be a strong part of our growth and expansion in the market.”
Bill Mitchell, President and CEO of PCI Pharma Services, commented “Our Rockford operations represent a considerable platform for the ongoing success of PCI. Our commercial contract packaging services are truly market leading with a strong market trajectory. Our clinical trial services provide a very exciting area for market growth and expansion, and very complementary to our commercial business.
“We also see exciting synergies between our specialized services in drug manufacturing and packaging, particularly in support of oncology therapies, which has considerable pharmaceutical market activity in the area of drug development and commercialization. We are very excited about the future of the company and potential for continued growth and expansion.”
PCI has already announced previous expansions including Cold Chain and Ultra Cold Chain developments at Rockford and Philadelphia in support of temperature controlled packaging, storage and distribution, and has embarked on site expansions of its Tredegar and Bridgend Facilities in the United Kingdom. Furthermore, PCI’s packaging services have invested in additional commercial packaging lines and significant expansion of its global capacity in Serialization and Anti-Counterfeiting technologies, not to mention the recent acquisition of contract packaging services provider Millmount Healthcare.
PCI is marking the Rockford anniversary with a celebration on-site. Local dignitaries, representatives of the RAEDC and Chamber of Commerce, and PCI representatives will be in attendance.
PCI maintains a 3 shift per day, 5 day per week schedule at its main sites and is currently adding 2nd and 3rd shifts at certain locations. It also recently instituted a Direct-to-Hire initiative for many hourly roles to facilitate growth in hiring.
PCI Pharma Service is principally owned by private equity firm Partners Group of Baar-Zug, Switzerland.
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