Ritedose buys more Columbia land for $81M growth plan

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With a big land purchase in hand, The Ritedose Corp. today said a major expansion will begin soon, boosting its workforce to more than 600 employees.

The investment — including the recent purchase of 105 acres from the Midlands Technical College Enterprise Campus in northeast Richland County — will bring the company’s total investment in a four-year multi-phase project to $81 million, according to a news release from the company.

When complete, the campus will house nearly 500,000 square feet of space dedicated to the manufacturing, packaging and distribution of pharmaceuticals. Ritedose is the largest sterile contract development manufacturing organization in the country, specializing in advanced Blow-Fill-Seal technology, the company says.

Groundbreaking will take place in the next few weeks, the news release stated, and the company will rename the property “Ritedose Performance Park.”

The first building on the newly acquired property will be a 225,000-square-foot central distribution and logistics center. The land is contiguous to the Carolina Research Park off Farrow Road in Richland County, home to Ritedose’s corporate headquarters and manufacturing facility at 1 Technology Circle.

“There continues to be a nationwide surge in demand for the medications we produce — especially for respiratory diseases,” Ritedose President and CEO Jody Chastain said in the release. “The volume of medications we’re producing has surpassed 1.5 billion doses annually, and we expect to produce more than 2 billion doses annually in the coming years. Our production of ophthalmic medications has also rapidly increased due to demand from cutting edge ophthalmic drug developers. I’m incredibly proud of our team for working hard and smart to meet the needs of millions of patients across the United States and doing it with absolute integrity and excellence.”

The company started with 16 acres when it first broke ground in 1995. In all, the Ritedose campus now comprises about 138 acres of land in northeast Columbia.

“When the Midlands Technical College Commission created the Enterprise Campus years ago, commissioners envisioned this property as a catalyst for workforce and economic development in our community. We are pleased that vision has now come to fruition,” MTC President Ron Rhames said in the release.

Included in the expansion plans is a one-mile nature walking path for employee wellness that will meander along nine acres of protected wetlands, the release stated. The addition of the facility will add more than 100 jobs to Ritedose’s workforce. The company has hired 79 employees since announcing growth plans in December 2022 and plans to hire about 70 more as the expansion project moves forward, according to a spokesman for the company.

See related story: Pharmaceutical company to invest $81M in Richland County

The average salary and benefit package for employees can total up to $90,000 a year, the release said.

“We are proud to be an employer of choice in the Midlands and draw talent from our backyard as well as all over the country due to our reputation for producing high-quality products for the patients we serve,” Chastain said in the release. “Since our last expansion in 2018, we have seen nearly 50% growth in manufacturing and sales, and we are projecting an annual double-digit growth for the foreseeable future — in part due to the development of new product lines. We are the manufacturer of multiple medications for different diseases, many of which are in clinical trials that will significantly expand our portfolio and improve the quality of life for millions of patients once approved by the U.S. FDA. Our team is excited about this expansion, as well as our accelerated trajectory that will help us serve even more patients.”

The Ritedose Corp. produces sterile, single-dose medication, serving the contract development manufacturing, generics and 503B outsourcing markets. The company’s customers range from small startups and retail pharmacies to large pharmaceutical companies, wholesalers and hospital systems.

The company’s process guides the development of molecules from clinical trials to commercialization of branded and generic inhalation and ophthalmic medications and compounding single-unit dose syringes, the release stated.