Sartorius Stedim Biotech, a Germany-based international partner of the biopharmaceutical industry serving the needs of laboratories performing research and quality control at pharma and biopharma companies and those of academic research institutes, announced on Friday that is expanding its capacities for production, innovation, and storage at its French facilities in Aubagne, Cergy and Lourdes.

The company is taking this step due to strong demand from the biopharmaceutical industry.

The firm is investing a total of EUR100m between 2021 and 2025. It plans to expand and upgrade the Aubagne, Cergy and Lourdes facilities to create additional cleanroom space of 4,000 square meters on top of the present 5,000 square meters, installing new R&D laboratories by around 2,000 square meters to strengthen the company's innovation capacity, upgrading its logistics platforms and building more than 10,000 square meters of warehouse facilities and storage depots, and digitalising and automating equipment to raise capacity and competitive advantage. The firm is creating up to 400 new permanent-employment positions at the four French sites between 2021 and 2025.