The Ercros factory in Aranjuez has celebrated its 75th anniversary with the inauguration of a new extraction plant, with an annual production capacity of 150,000 kilos. This plant will expand the pharmacy division’s portfolio with two new products, vancomycin and gentamicin, antibiotics especially indicated for hospital infections, and make the production of erythromycin, its salts and derivatives, antibiotics indicated for hospital infections more efficient. the respiratory tract.
The construction of the extraction plant has required an investment of 14 million euros and has made it possible to create 10 new qualified employment positions. The first construction work on the plant began in 2022 and throughout last year the work on industrial scaling of the process was completed. A few days ago, the plant received approval from the Spanish Medicines Agency, after which Ercros can now begin the production and marketing of the new products.
The celebration event was attended by Miguel Gómez Herrero, acting mayor of Aranjuez; Agustín Franco, general business director of Ercros, and Mª Carmen Cruzado, director of the pharmacy division and the Aranjuez factory.
To commemorate the anniversary, the Aranjuez City Council, for its part, has renamed the roundabout that gives access to the center as “Glorieta de la Fábrica de la Penicilina”. An old pharmaceutical mixer and old fire-fighting equipment have been installed in the rotunda, which have been restored for the occasion and are testimony to the factory’s past. Both teams, like many others, were replaced at the time by more efficient ones.
The Aranjuez factory forms the pharmacy division of Ercros and was founded in 1949, when it became the first Spanish company to manufacture penicillin. Since then it has not stopped expanding its production capacity and its product catalogue, achieving higher quality and improving the environmental performance and safety of its facilities. In the last five years, Ercros has invested more than 35 million euros in this factory.
Ercros manufactures active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) in Aranjuez, mainly in the field of antibiotics and, to a lesser extent, antiulcer and antihypertensive drugs. It also produces active ingredients and pharmaceutical intermediates tailored to the client. It exports more than 90% of its sales to the EU, USA, Middle East and North Africa, mainly.
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