Grifols' fractionation facility in Clayton receives the ISPE 2014 Facility of the Year award

Barcelona, May 8, 2014.- Grifols a leading manufacturer of plasma-derived biological medicines  has received the Facility of the Year Award made annually by the International Society for Pharmaceutical Engineering (ISPE) for its new fractionation facility in the United States. 

The facility, located in Clayton (North Carolina, USA) has a capacity that exceeds five million liters of plasma/year. In order to ensure the highest standards of product quality and high production capacity while minimizing risks, the new plant has used the latest systems and processes incorporating a high level of automation, minimizing human interaction and reducing process variability.

All these benefits have distinguished the plant as a benchmark installation in the latest edition of the Facility of the Year awards in the category of Project Execution. These prizes are awarded for innovation and creativity in the production facilities of companies in the healthcare sector. The projects that receive these awards tend to set the standards for the design and construction of pharmaceutical facilities in the future.

This recognition positions Grifols as an example to follow in the application of new approaches and tools to improve manufacturing efficiency. It also highlights the success of a highly motivated cross functional team to overcome challenges during project execution.

Grifols is one of the world's leading companies in the production of plasma derived medicines, with a global market share of approximately 20%. The manufacturing process for obtaining plasma products involves highly advanced technology and Grifols constantly introduces improvements to its installations. These investments and those destined for building new plasma fractionation, protein purification and dispensing facilities are the main lines of activity included in the company's new capital expenditure plan.  Grifols intends to allocate a total of more than 600 million Euros to CAPEX during the period 2014-2016.

About Grifols

Grifols is a global healthcare company with a 70-year legacy of improving people's health and well being through the development of life-saving plasma medicines, diagnostics systems, and hospital pharmacy products.

The company is present in more than 100 countries worldwide and is headquartered in Barcelona, Spain. Grifols is a leader in plasma collection with a network of 150 plasma donor centers in the U.S., and a leading producer of plasma-derived biological medicines. The company also provides a comprehensive range of transfusion medicine, hemostasis, and immunoassay solutions for clinical laboratories, blood banks and transfusion centers, and is a recognized leader in transfusion medicine.

In 2013, sales exceeded 2,740 million euros with a headcount of 13,200 employees. Grifols demonstrates its commitment to advancing healthcare by allocating a significant portion of its annual income to R&D.

The company's class A shares are listed on the Spanish Stock Exchange, where they are part of the Ibex-35 (MCE:GRF). Its non-voting class B shares are listed on the Mercado Continuo (MCE:GRF.P) and on the U.S. NASDAQ via ADRs (NASDAQ: GRFS). For more information visit www.grifols.com