Bayer invests 250 million Euros in new production facility in Finland
Accelerating global access to modern contraception
Bayer announced the opening of a new production facility in Turku, Finland, to secure long-term supply of long-acting reversible contraceptives (LARCs). The 250 million Euro investment to increase the production capacity of implants and hormonal intrauterine systems (IUS) plays a crucial role in driving Bayer’s global sustainability goal to help provide 100 million women in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) with access to modern contraception by 2030.
The new facility will utilize automation, robotics, and digital technologies to enable significant advances, which will create efficiencies in operations and enable increased capacities. Alongside the facility in Turku, Bayer is building a new state-of-the-art production facility, specialized in the production and supply of LARCs in Alajuela, Costa Rica. Both projects are part of Bayer’s overall investment of over 400 million Euros to support women’s choice in and access to contraception across the world. The production facility project in Costa Rica is on track as planned; teams from both sites are collaborating in order to supply long-acting reversible contraceptives to meet Bayer’s sustainability goal.
“Our significant investments in production capacities demonstrate our continuous commitment to drive access to medicine across the world”, said Holger Weintritt, Member of the Executive Leadership Team and Head of Product Supply for the Pharmaceuticals Division of Bayer AG. “At Bayer, we have a long history in supporting family planning programs. We strongly believe that providing girls and women with access to modern contraception plays an essential role in fostering gender equality, improving health and well-being of communities, and achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.”
Despite all global efforts and progress made in family planning, the number of unintended pregnancies worldwide remains high, at 121 million per year (331,000 per day). The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) views these unintended pregnancies as a global failure to uphold a basic human right: the choice of whether to become pregnant.
“This is a global crisis. The international community promised it would make universal access to modern contraception a reality for everyone by 2030, but there are still over 250 million women for whom this is not possible. We must urgently speed up our efforts to transform the lives of women and girls, and we must do it by working together”, said Mariarosa Cutillo, Chief of UNFPA’s Strategic Partnerships Branch. “Public-private partnerships, such as the one between UNFPA and Bayer, are crucial to help us reach our goal. Everyone should be able to choose whether, when, and with whom they become pregnant.”
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