Aranjuez celebrates its 75th anniversary and inaugurates a plant
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 portfolio of the pharmaceuticals division with two new products, vancomycin and gentamycin, antibiotics especially indicated for hospital infections, and make the production of erythromycin, its salts and derivatives, antibiotics indicated for respiratory tract infections, more efficient.
The construction of the extraction plant has required an investment of 14 million euros and has made it possible to create 10 new qualified jobs. The first construction work on the plant began in 2022 and industrial scaling work on the process was completed last year. A few days ago, the plant received approval from the Spanish Medicines Agency, after which Ercros can now start the production and marketing of the new products.
The celebration ceremony was attended by Miguel Gómez Herrero, acting mayor of Aranjuez; Agustín Franco, general business director of Ercros, and Mª Carmen Cruzado, director of the pharmaceuticals division and the Aranjuez factory.
To commemorate the anniversary, the City Council of Aranjuez, for its part, has renamed the roundabout that gives access to the centre as "Glorieta de la Fábrica de la Penicillina". An old pharmaceutical mixer and an old fire-fighting equipment have been installed in the roundabout, which have been restored for the occasion and are testimony to the factory's past. Both machines, like many others, were replaced at the time by more efficient ones.
The Aranjuez factory is part of the pharmaceuticals division of Ercros and was founded in 1949, when it became the first Spanish company to manufacture penicillin. Since then, it has continued to expand its production capacity and product portfolio, achieve higher quality and improve 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 products. It also produces active ingredients and pharmaceutical intermediates tailored to the customer. It exports more than the 90% of its sales to the EU, USA, Middle East and North Africa, mainly.
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