Czech pharma firm opens packaging plant

At the heart of the facility, launched in December 2009, is a state of the art €1m blister packaging line supplied by the German manufacturer Uhlmann Pac-Systeme of Laupheim. The plant will focus on packing Medis’s immunosuppressant drugs used to block tissue rejection after transplant surgery.

The automated packaging line has the capacity to turn out 250 boxes of the product, blister wrapped and with inserts per minute, according to Medis.

While Medis awaits final European Union approval of products from its Tunisian pharmaceutical facility, the new packaging unit has begun handling products for third party pharmaceutical companies. One customer is the Israeli-owned group Teva which operates a Czech drug plant nearby, Medis director Stephen Lukas was reported by the Prague Post as explaining.

The pharma packager is taking advantage of a booming regional market for generic drugs. In spite of the global economic recession, the pharmaceuticals sector has seen significant growth in Central and Eastern Europe over the past two years, he told the Post.

This was largely driven by the need for regional governments to find a wide range of affordable generic drugs. That is important because the state carries the majority of the cost of prescription medicines.

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