GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is investing roughly $64 million to expand its manufacturing and drug development activities in its Boronia facility near Melbourne, Australia.

The Boronia facility, which serves as GSK’s Australia headquarters, is the company’s largest sterile manufacturing facility, featuring eight filling machines, six packaging lines and state-of-the-art “blow-fill-seal” (BFS) technology. 

The project is expected to create 58 new “highly-skilled” jobs by 2017, double GSK’s BFS manufacturing capacity—which it would make available to local companies—and fund the creation of a pilot scale industrialization facility for new power and sterile liquid pharmaceuticals.

“This investment will build a sustainable manufacturing capability within the local community while driving manufacturing technology,” said site director Troy Webb.

The Boronia facility will continue to support GSK’s R&D collaboration with Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences to develop next-generation drugs.