Square Pharmaceuticals signs contract with Telstar for development of pharma plants

Spain-based Telstar will direct the full execution of two new pharmaceutical plants for Bangladesh-based Square Pharmaceuticals. For the first project, Telstar will manage the construction of a plant for the production of oral solids consisting of a four-storeyed building of 32,000 square metre with seven fluidised bed granulation lines, 11 tablet lines, four lines for capsules, and 16 primary and secondary packaging lines, plus a second service building of 1,000 square metre.

The second project consists of a 20,000 square metre four-storeyed building for production of parenterals in small and large volume formats, including two lines for manufacturing BFS bottles with two reactors of 20,000 litres each, a line for manufacturing glass bottles, one for bags, two for vials, two for preloaded syringes, one for lyophilised vials with two freeze-dryers and one topical aerosol production line.

Telstar performed the engineering for both plants and was the winning bidder for the full project administration and provision of the pharma architecture and the process equipment and critical installations; managing the coordination of local installers for the remaining installations. Start-up and qualification of these new plants is scheduled for the first half of 2013.

Square Pharmaceutical’s trust in Telstar as a technological partner is based on its know-how, experience and capability in the development of these types of large scope projects. Since 2003, Telstar has collaborated with Square on a number of high-complexity projects which involved the development of production installations and plants. Outstanding examples include the new cephalosporin plant built in 2005, the new plant for sterile filling and bottling of pharma liquids with Blow-Fill-Seal (BFS) technology in 2007, the new insulin production plant in 2010 (with the ability to produce up to 13 million vials of insulin per year) and, finally, the SVPO plant for production of small volume parenterals and ophthalmology products inaugurated in 2008 in Dhaka.

Square Pharmaceuticals is the largest manufacturer of pharma products in Bangladesh. The most prominent company of the Square Group since its founding in 1958, it has experienced solid growth leading it to its current leadership position in its country and in the Asian continent. With a market share of 16.43 per cent, Square Pharmaceuticals obtained a sales volume of approximately $164 million in 2010.

EP News Bureau