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Boehringer Ingelheim invests some $50M to expand plant in Barceloneta

Boehringer Ingelheim, a global provider of animal health products for pets and livestock, announced a nearly $50 million expansion of its manufacturing site in Barceloneta.

The investment will create up to 105 full-time jobs in three to five years, bringing full-time employment at the site as high as 322.

Everett Hoekstra, president of Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health USA Inc., said the company is proud of its ties to the island.

“Our site in Puerto Rico is critical to meet growing demand for products that help protect pets from disease,” he said.

Headquartered in Duluth, Ga., Boehringer Ingelheim’s Animal Health business in the United States has invested more than $220 million to expand sites in Georgia, Missouri and Puerto Rico in the last few years. Those investments have created or will create several hundred jobs.

“We are dedicated to the communities around the United States where our employees live and work,” Hoekstra said.

Boehringer Ingelheim’s Barceloneta site — which has been in operation for 48 years —manufactures HeartGard Plus (ivermectin/pyrantel). HeartGard Plus is a real beef chew that prevents heartworm disease in dogs and treats and controls hookworm and roundworm infections.

The expansion will let the site start manufacturing NexGard (afoxolaner), which is FDA-approved for the treatment and prevention of flea infestations, and the treatment and control of tick infestations in dogs; it also is the only product that is FDA-approved for the prevention of Lyme infections as a direct result of killing vector ticks.

The Barceloneta site already packages NexGard (afoxolaner) manufactured in Brazil for shipment to the United States and Canada.

In addition to operating a manufacturing site on the island, Boehringer Ingelheim has invested time and resources to help people and animals in Puerto Rico.

The company has contributed products worth $2.2 million as part of the Spayathon for Puerto Rico, a coalition of 26 groups organized by the Humane Society of the United States. Those groups have provided free spay/neuter and vaccination services to tens of thousands of animals.

In addition, the BI Cares Foundation, an independent nonprofit organization that operates out of Boehringer Ingelheim’s U.S. headquarters in Ridgefield, Conn., donated more than $150,000 to nonprofits that provided assistance in Puerto Rico after Hurricane María in 2017.

The Foundation donated medicine for people on the island, while the company’s animal health business donated products for animals.

This fall, Boehringer Ingelheim plans to donate the first of 60,000 doses of rabies vaccine and tens of thousands of dollars to fight rabies in Puerto Rico, the company confirmed.

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This story was written by our staff based on a press release.
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