German drugmaker Boehringer Ingelheim is planning to invest around 1.6 billion pesos (about $84 million) at its three manufacturing sites in Mexico over the next two years, with the aim of boosting production at all three.

The first and biggest project with be to lift output at its Xochimilco tableting site for diabetic drugs near Mexico City, taking output capability to 2.5 billion tablets annually in 2028 from about 1.6 billion units currently.

 Boehringer said the expansion will allow it to increase exports to the US as well as Argentina, Colombia and Brazil.  

Last year, the drugmaker began construction on a $100 million R&D and manufacturing facility in Germany, where it plans to develop and manufacture more complex tablets for global launches. Simultaneously, it is moving production of what it calls older, less complex drugs to other worldwide sites.