Clariant Healthcare Packaging Expands BCP Program with Desiccants from Chinese Site

• Site designed to support Business Continuity Planning (BCP)
• Quality, manufacturing practices match Clariant global standards
• Expansion continues with new manufacturing site in India

Muttenz, April 26, 2016 – Clariant, a world leader in specialty chemicals, and its Healthcare Packaging unit, is launching family of standard desiccant packets from its plant in Dongguan, China. In addition to enabling quick delivery in local markets, the new manufacturing operation can provide critical back up for Clariant's other global sites, should it ever be required.

"Business Continuity Planning or BCP is critical to our pharmaceutical stakeholders who are more and more requiring that we have strong contingencies," says Matthias Brommer, Vice President and Head of Clariant Healthcare Packaging. "Accordingly, we are developing a global infrastructure that ensures that we are prepared to deal with any market or operational disruptions."

The Donguan plant applies the same materials, specifications, quality standards, good manufacturing practices and controls as Clariant's other global production sites in Belen, New Mexico, USA, and Romorantin, France. Compliance protocol is also the same, and pharmaceutical desiccants produced in Dongguan comply with US FDA and EU standards for contact with food.

In Dongguan, Clariant will produce its global desiccant brands Sorb-it® (silica gel) and Tri-Sorb® (molecular sieve) desiccant packets, and include Tyvek® and Continu-Strip® hole punch packets that feature a hole in every seal to optimize the desiccant insertion process.

The network of production sites will soon include a fourth facility in Cuddalore, India, where Clariant recently broke ground. Also integral for BCP, the new plant in Cuddalore will supply the large and growing Indian market, the largest producer of generic drugs globally.

"The trend in this market is to require BCP," says Brommer, "and Clariant is the only desiccant manufacturer with such an extensive global footprint that both enables production of identical products at multiple sites while improving our service to our global customers."