AMTIL member Andrew Donald Design Engineering (ADDE) will provide three new specialised production lines for AstraZeneca as the pharmaceuticals giant expands its manufacturing facility in North Ryde, NSW.

On 11 July AstraZeneca announced its decision to invest a further $100m in its manufacturing operation in Sydney, which will fund the three specialised production lines for innovative respiratory medicines. The expanded manufacturing capacity will boost international exports from the North Ryde site to over $2.4bn over the next four years, and result in an additional 60 jobs at the facility.

The machinery is a result of AstraZeneca’s strong collaboration with ADDE. The Melbourne-based specialist machine designers will build each new production line from scratch to AstraZeneca’s custom design specification. The machines will take a team of 36 people over 12 months to produce.

Each production line has the capacity to produce over 70 million units per year of Pulmicort Respules, a medicine for patients with asthma. The medicine is produced in Australia for markets such as China, where we help to treat a proportion of China’s estimated 30 million asthma sufferers.

Pascal Soriot, Chief Executive Officer of AstraZeneca, said: “AstraZeneca has a 60-year history in Australia of bringing innovative medicines for cancer, diabetes and respiratory disease to patients. Our latest investment is an example of the tremendous opportunities presented by high-tech manufacturing and productivity, creating jobs, boosting exports and ultimately making a positive impact on the Australian economy.”

Mark Morgan, Manufacturing Director of AstraZeneca Australia added: “Our manufacturing model is based on high-tech production that is difficult to replicate. The machinery is a credit to Australian engineering excellence and its performance can be attributed to our workforce who achieve significant increases in productivity and efficiency out of the machines.”

“Despite the trend for manufacturing businesses to relocate to countries where labour costs are lower, we’re investing and expanding our manufacturing operations in Australia with locally manufactured equipment.”