A NEW pharmaceuticals factory in Keysborough is boosting local jobs.
Australian Pharmaceutical Manufacturers (APM) opened its Springvale Road facility on 17 May, with Attorney-General and Isaacs MP Mark Dreyfus.
It’s the largest wholly Australian-owned pharmaceutical contract manufacturing facility in Australia.
APM provides manufacturing and packaging services for tablet, capsule and powdered products to the Australian and international markets.
It started as an offshoot of a much larger liquid chemical manufacturer in 2002 and with only one customer, two staff and some inherited machinery started to make tablets, creams and lotions.
Three moves and the decision to concentrate solely on therapeutic goods has culminated in the new facility.
It’s able to manufacture more than 9,000,000 tablets and capsules a day, with packing lines capable of outputting more than 60,000 finished packs in a day.
APM currently employs 50 staff and expects to add a further 25 per cent in the months ahead.
More than 90 per cent of staff live within 10 kilometres of the site, more than half have been with APM for more than five years, and 95 per cent are from Asia or have an Asian background.
The company will install a 100kW solar PV system to reduce power requirements and its carbon footprint.
During full sunshine the installation is expected to supply 100 per cent of the power the plant requires and should reduce carbon emissions by 36.2 per cent a year.
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