Vetter Dedicates New Facility In Suburban Chicago

Vetter has added new 24,000-square-foot facility at the Illinois Science + Technology Park in Skokie, which is expected to enable life-sciences firms to streamline their early development process and cut time to market.

Operational by the end of 2010, the Skokie facility will focus exclusively on pre-clinical through Phase IIb projects and will fill very small quantities of product, required for early studies. For Phase III the projects will be transferred to the company’s German facilities for large-scale production.

David Miller, president and CEO of the Illinois Biotechnology Industry Organization (iBIO), said: “We are very pleased to welcome Vetter to Chicago as we prepare to host the upcoming 2010 BIO International Convention. It’s an extraordinarily well-respected firm; Vetter adds real depth to our rapidly growing life sciences community.”

The new facility is strategic to Vetter’s plan for worldwide growth. Founded 25 years ago in Ravensburg, Germany, Vetter employs 2,200 people. The Skokie site at 8025 Lamon Avenue, Vetter’s first US facility and its first outside Germany, will eventually employ 50 to 60 highly skilled professionals.

Soelkner, added: “Since nearly half of our customer base is located in North America, creating a US facility was the logical next step. Although we did consider several other US biotech hotspots, including Boston and San Francisco, Chicago best suited our needs.”

The suburban Chicago facility is uniquely positioned. It is located in a thriving biopharmaceutical region with an established infrastructure and a talent pool of 70,000 to 80,000 professionals. It is near prominent research institutions. Centrally located within the US the site is within 20 minutes of O’Hare Airport, a domestic and international hub. And the difference in time zones enables convenient communication among Skokie and German facilities.