Unilife Corporation Moves into New State-of-the-Art Manufacturing Facility and Global Headquarters

LEWISBERRY, Pa., Dec. 14, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- Unilife Corporation ("Unilife" or the "Company") (Nasdaq: UNIS; ASX: UNS) announced today that it has initiated the relocation of its operations into its new, 165,000 square foot state-of-the art manufacturing facility and global headquarters in York, PA.  

All essential production equipment, including the automated assembly and packaging systems used to manufacture the Unitract® range of 1mL syringes, has now been transferred from Unilife's original Lewisberry site into designated cleanrooms at the York facility. A video filmed last week showcasing the finishing stages of the York facility and its key resources can be viewed on the home page of the Unilife website at www.unilife.com.

Unilife expects to have all of its 170 employees working out of the new facility by December 20th.

The $31 million facility, which has been designed by leading U.S. architects to meet the most stringent international pharmaceutical standards for primary drug containers, has been completed fully on schedule and largely on budget by Unilife in conjunction with its construction partners.

Mr. Alan Shortall, Chief Executive Officer of Unilife, stated, "The combination of this state-of-the-art facility, our best-in-class products and the advanced production systems used to manufacture them are together helping us set a new industry benchmark for safety syringes. We are very proud to be delivering upon our key business milestones with the completion of our York facility just one year after we first commenced the clearing of the site. We look forward to continuing this strong track record of success with the commercial production of our Unifill® ready-to-fill syringes and their supply to pharmaceutical customers during the first half of 2011."

Unilife's York facility has been designed to manufacture up to 400 million of Unilife's syringes a year. A second stage of the facility is already pre-approved that would add another 100,000 square feet of production space, and take the total production capacity of the site to around one billion units per year subject to commercial demand.

Production of the Unitract 1mL syringes will recommence in February 2011 following the recertification of the automated assembly line, as required by regulatory agencies. The automated assembly system for the Unifill ready-to-fill syringe is expected to be transferred into the York facility during the first quarter of 2011 when Factory Acceptance Tests at the Denver, Colorado facilities of the Mikron Group are completed. Commercial supply of the Unifill syringe to pharmaceutical customers is expected to occur during the second quarter of 2011.

Some of the amenities at the new Unilife facility in York, PA include:

• Eight Class 8 (100,000) and three Class 7 (10,000) clean rooms where environmental factors such as temperature, humidity, microbial and particulate matter are tightly controlled;
• An advanced Water-for-Injection (WFI) system that will meet established pharmaceutical standards of water purity required for the production of the Unifill ready-to-fill syringe;
• A microbiology lab;
• A product development center;
• Quality physical and analytical inspection labs;
• A 20,000 square foot temperature controlled warehouse for efficient inventory management;
• A 54,000 square foot office wing to serve the Company's global headquarters and support management functions.

About Unilife Corporation

Unilife Corporation is a U.S.-based medical device company focused on the design, development, manufacture and supply of a proprietary range of retractable syringes. Primary target customers for Unilife products include pharmaceutical manufacturers, suppliers of medical equipment to healthcare facilities and patients who self-administer prescription medication. These patent-protected syringes incorporate automatic, operator-controlled needle retraction features which are fully integrated within the barrel, and are designed to protect those at risk of needlestick injuries and unsafe injection practices. Unilife is ISO 13485-certified and has FDA-registered medical device manufacturing facilities in Pennsylvania.

This press release contains forward-looking statements. All statements that address operating performance, events or developments that we expect or anticipate will occur in the future are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based on management's beliefs and assumptions and on information currently available to our management. Our management believes that these forward-looking statements are reasonable as and when made. However, you should not place undue reliance on any such forward-looking statements because such statements speak only as of the date when made. We do not undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law. In addition, forward-looking statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results, events and developments to differ materially from our historical experience and our present expectations or projections. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, those described in "Item 1A. Risk Factors" and elsewhere in our Annual Report on Form 10-K and those described from time to time in other reports which we file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. 

General: UNIS-G

SOURCE Unilife Corporation

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