Bayer Invests US $20 Million in Expansion of Salvadoran Plant; Investment Sustains More Than 350 Jobs for Salvadorans.
Business Editors/Health & Medical Writers
SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 24, 2002
Plant Becomes Largest in Central America and New Regional
Headquarters for Pharmaceutical Division
PROESA, El Salvador's foreign investment promotion agency, announced that German pharmaceutical giant Bayer AG has invested US $20 million in the expansion of its Bonima production facility in the Salvadoran city of Llopango. The plant is now the largest pharmaceutical production facility in Central America and the company's new regional headquarters for its pharmaceutical division.
Bayer purchased the Llopango plant from domestic pharmaceutical manufacturer Bonima in 1995 for US $40 million, and has since modernized and upgraded the facility's technology and production capabilities to meet scientific international standards. The Central American plant boasts technology not yet utilized in Germany and operates its own million-dollar water processing plant used exclusively in the production of medications. Only Bayer's pharmaceutical plants in Mexico, Venezuela and Brazil are of a comparable size or technological level.
Bayer will be manufacturing 150 medications, 75 percent of them for export, at the expanded plant. Twenty of these products, including the major antibiotics Avelox and Ciproxina, carry the Bayer brand. Others comprise lower-priced generic lines positioned to compete with products produced by domestic laboratories.
"The Salvadoran government has adopted a progressive framework to allow for foreign investment, and (El Salvador) has served as a tremendous region for Bayer to grow," said Jean Vayssier, president of Bayer for Central America and the Caribbean. El Salvador was the first Central American country where Bayer established operations, with the company's presence dating back to 1955.
"We invested in technology, security and quality in El Salvador because we understand our responsibility to serve the public and its health needs," said Humberto Cuestas, general manager of the Bonima Bayer plant. "As we continue to invest and expand in the region, Bayer has plans to introduce new technologies benefiting El Salvador and Central America."
Salvadoran President Francisco Flores was on hand for a ceremony at the plant in July to mark Bayer's move to bring the company's regional distribution center to El Salvador. The move will sustain more than 350 jobs.
