West Pharmaceutical India Packaging, an indirect subsidiary of West Pharmaceutical Services, began construction of its new compression molding facility located in Sri City, India.

The plant will become part of West’s global supply chain for its pharmaceutical packaging components. West signed a 99-year lease on 72,800 square meters of land in the Sri City Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in June. Sri City was selected because of land, availability of utilities, labor suitability, logistics, quality of life and SEZ special factors.

“We are experiencing a very exciting period of growth and business expansion in Asia and we are proud to begin construction of our first facility in India,” said Donald E. Morel, Jr., chairman and CEO of West. “The plant in India will help West meet market demand and establishes a West presence near our pharmaceutical customers in India.”

Construction of phase I will began on a metal seal assembly and compression molding facility that will produce metal and elastomeric pharmaceutical components used in primary packaging of injectable medicines manufactured by West’s pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical customers in India and the wider Asia Pacific region. The built-up area of phase I will be 15,300 square meters, with commercial production of metal components expected to begin in the first quarter of 2014. Production of a range of West’s high-quality standard elastomeric components is expected to begin in the first quarter of 2015. The capability to produce ready-to-sterilize components will be available by 2016. The built-up area for the plant and office will eventually reach 37,700 square meters at the completion of phase III in 2023.

“This investment is important to our strategy of partnering with customers in India and the Asia Pacific region to help them provide medicines to patients more efficiently, reliably and safely,” said Warwick Bedwell, president of pharmaceutical packaging systems, Asia Pacific region, West. “When the facility is completed, we anticipate a reduction in lead times for supply to our customers in India. By leveraging our global sourcing activities and process engineering expertise, we will be able to carefully manage the overall costs of production.”

West plans to file Drug Master Files for the plant with the FDA and Heath Canada’s Bureau of Pharmaceutical Sciences.