Medical Products Makers Invest in U.S. Manufacturing
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Written by Eric Funderburk for IIR News Intelligence (Sugar Land, Texas)
Summary
Consumable and disposable medical products other than drugs are driving various construction projects throughout the U.S.
Essential Products
Industrial Info Resources’ coverage of the Pharmaceutical-Biotech Industry includes not only the drugs, active pharmaceutical ingredients and the related labs and research facilities, but also other essential medical products, including syringes, wound dressings and packaged intravenous solutions. The manufacture of these essential items represents a steady source of construction investment throughout the country.
Syringes & Drug Delivery Devices
Earlier this month, medical device manufacturer Becton Dickinson (BD) announced it had struck a deal with the U.S. government to invest $19 billion in the U.S., including $3 billion earmarked for manufacturing sites across the country. As details of these upcoming projects emerge, one U.S. project in the U.S. already is underway: upgrades and additions that will expand production capacity at the company’s plant in Columbus, Nebraska, which manufacture BD’s proprietary Neopak prefillable glass syringes. Strongly driving BD’s Nebraska capacity growth is the injectable GLP-1 market, which is very much driving construction on the drug side of the U.S. industry.
Readers can access details of the Becton Dickinson project, including construction timelines, key contact details, and equipment and service needs, by clicking here. To learn more about U.S. GLP-1-related construction projects, see August 27, 2026, article – GLP-1 Drugs Drive Pharma Construction Wave.
Other projects are focusing on the packaging aspect of syringes, autoinjectors and similar devices. These include Sharp Packaging Solutions‘ expansion of its plant in Macungie, Pennsylvania, which will focus on secondary packaging, and labeling and cartoning for autoinjectors and prefilled syringes that contain drugs. Facilitating the types of drugs that can be packaged, Sharp is expanding its cold storage space as well.
PCI Pharma Services also is fitting out its packaging area for autoinjectors and prefilled syringes at its plant in Rockford, Illinois.
IV Solutions
In a similar vein to syringes and autoinjectors, Otsuka ICU is at work expanding its main production campus in Austin, Texas, which manufactures the company’s filled intravenous (IV) solution bags. The joint venture company is adding another 500,000 square feet of manufacturing space to its Austin campus, and while the company hasn’t elaborated on exactly what sorts of products the addition will cover, ICU’s products include IV bags with substances such as saline, sterilized water, dextrose and electrolyte solutions.
Wound Dressings
Last year, Mölnlycke Health Care US, broke ground on a building addition at its manufacturing campus for single-use wound dressings in Brunswick, Maine. Among Mölnlycke’s offerings are its Mepitel and Mepilex dressing lines that are based on a soft-silicone technology.
Kidney Care
Dialyzers are the name of the game for Nipro Medical Corporation’s construction of a new plant in Greenville, North Carolina, which also will manufacture precision needles. Patients requiring kidney dialysis require a new dialyzer each time they receive treatment, and with this occurring multiple times per week, the number of dialyzers required by individuals over an extended basis can be quite large. Nipro is catering to a strong market; a 2026 report from the National Kidney Foundation suggested more than 831,000 U.S. residents were being treated for end-stage renal disease at the end of 2023, a number which has appeared to stay relatively stable over recent years.
Contact Lenses
Contact lenses have very much become a disposable medical item, with users discarding lenses at a frequency ranging daily to monthly, but always with a new pair waiting to be worn. The biggest construction news in this segment comes from Johnson & Johnson Vision, manufacturer of the blockbuster ACUVUE line of disposable contact lenses.
J&J broke ground earlier this year on the expansion of its contacts plant in Jacksonville, Florida, which already manufactures 1.7 billion lenses per year for the U.S. market. Johnson & Johnson is adding new production and packaging lines at the plant along with the latest in automation to grow capacity. Work is expected to last into 2029.
Key Takeaways
- Disposable and consumable medical items represent a driver of U.S. construction throughout the country.
- Syringes and autoinjectors represent a strong market driver, which in turn is being driven by injectable GLP-1 drugs/
- Other items supporting U.S. construction projects include contact lenses, IV solution bags and wound dressings.
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