On the tenth anniversary of the founding, GE Pharmaceuticals opened its second GMP-qualified production plant with storehouse on Sept. 15, 2015 in Botevgrad, Bulgaria. The packing company offers the serialized packing of medicines with 2D-matrix-code with tamper evidence. These two security features will be mandatory for all pharmaceutical producers according to EU-Guideline 2011/62/EU, which comes into effect in 2019.

“After the completion of the validation process, we can already provide products for our clients in accordance with the new guidelines from 2016 onwards”, says Günter Datz, one of the general managers of GE Pharmaceuticals.

The Austrian-Bulgarian enterprise was founded in 2005 as joint venture with 31 employees – with a share of 50% each of Ecopharm and Genericon, one of the largest Austrian producers of generic pharmaceutical products.

With currently 150 employees, the company’s four production lines turn out 60 million blister-packs and 20 million pharmaceutical products. With the commissioning of the second production plant, the number of production lines was increased to six, with the possibility of up to twelve additional lines in the future.

GE Pharmaceuticals’ portfolio ranges from the customs service on the implementation of EU retests to primary and secondary packaging and manual packaging. The Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety (AGES) has certified the GMP-qualified manufacturing facility the first time. In recent years, more than 65 audits and re-audits have been carried out by customers as well as the Bulgarian Drug Agency (BDA).

In addition to producing, GE Pharmaceuticals operates chemical and microbiological laboratories in Botevgrad to provide appropriate laboratory services to external partners. GE Pharmaceuticals has specialized in particular in the production of small batches: last year, 54% of the total production comprised batches with less than 5,000 packs, including batches with less than 1,000 packages (25%).