Grifols Celebrates 50 Years of Manufacturing Life-Changing Plasma-Derived Medicines for Patients at Flagship Site in Clayton, N.C. - Seite 2

“Our Clayton site represents all that is special about our company – trusted medicines, exceptional engineering, sustainable operations and a committed workforce that gives its all each and every day to make a positive impact on patients,” said Nacho Abia, Grifols CEO. “As we celebrate this historic site’s Golden Anniversary, we also look forward to all its future achievements.”

A model of innovation

The site, which operates around the clock, 365 days a year, is an engineering marvel. Its industry-leading advanced robotics span the entire plasma-medicine manufacturing cycle, from fractionation to purification, to filling and packaging of the final medicinal product. Innovations at Clayton are being replicated today at new Grifols manufacturing sites in Montreal, Canada, and Cairo, Egypt.

The North Carolina site’s technology has also been on the front lines of recent public health crises. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Clayton produced an anti-SARS-CoV-2 hyperimmune globulin at a special-purpose facility equipped and staffed with personnel trained in the production of plasma-derived medicines for infectious diseases. This specialized knowledge was applied several years earlier during an outbreak of Ebola, for which the Clayton team produced anti-Ebola immunoglobulins.

Naturally sustainable

Within the Clayton campus, Grifols maintains a 300-acre (121 hectares) wildlife habitat area to protect and enhance biodiversity. The reserve includes eight walking trails and is home to more than 300 plant and animal species. This area holds a GOLD conservation certification, the highest tier available from the Wildlife Habitat Council.

In 2019, Grifols became the first pharmaceutical company in the United States to receive the Zero-Waste-to-Landfill validation from Underwriters Laboratories in recognition of the Clayton site diverting 99% of its waste materials from landfills. It has maintained this validation for the last five consecutive years.

The site is also home to the first LEED-certified building in Johnston County, where the town of Clayton is located. Grifols’ campus here now has two LEED facilities as well as two Green Globes buildings certified by the Green Building Initiative (GBI), a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving building performance and reducing climate impacts.

Grifols’ involvement in Johnston County includes a broad range of programs and initiatives to help the local communities. Since 2015, Grifols has promoted its ‘Discover the Plasma,’ program, which it developed to enhance North Carolina middle school science curricula while raising awareness about plasma-derived medicines. Grifols is also a supporter of the Johnston Community College Workforce Development Center, which it helped create in 2005 and has since supported a state-of-the-art simulated drug-manufacturing environment to train skilled employees in Johnston County and help them find work locally.