FDA Licenses Amgen’s Puerto Rico Facility

Amgen Inc., the giant Thousand Oaks biotechnology concern, said the federal Food and Drug Administration has licensed its new facility in Juncos, Puerto Rico.

The 320,000-square-foot plant was designed and renovated over the past three years and is now equipped to “fill and finish” Amgen’s two drugs, anemia-fighting Epogen and infection-fighting Neupogen.

The drugs are manufactured in bulk in Thousand Oaks, but previously an outside contractor performed the filling and finishing functions.

Now finished vials or syringes of the drugs will be shipped from Amgen’s Puerto Rico facility. There are considerable tax advantages in Puerto Rico for Amgen to operate the plant.

The company said future products could also be finished at the Puerto Rico plant.