Kodak, Rochester, New York, United States: Kodak's Expansion into Regulated Pharmaceuticals

An essay of up to 650 words

1. Kodak has completed the construction phase of its new cGMP facility, which involved five major trade vendors and a significant, full-time workforce.
    
2. Kodak completed the entire construction and build phase within 5% of budget, managing over 45 change order issuances. This work resulted in the new manufacturing facility, allowing Kodak to produce regulated pharmaceutical products.

1. Kodak is completing the buildout of the facility’s state-of-the-art IT infrastructure, incorporating modules for back-office controls, production-line operations, and plant operations. These include inventory management and product logistics, finance, customer operations (Order to Cash), and quality system management, including document control.
    
2. Kodak has recruited permanent, full-time cGMP plant workers, excluding existing leadership, which resulted in new pharma-level employees for New York’s Finger Lakes region.
    
3. Kodak’s Advanced Materials & Chemicals group, which includes the pharma business, continues to emerge as a key part of the company’s long-term strategy. In Q3 of 2024, the group delivered YOY growth in terms of both revenue and operational EBITDA. Kodak continues to invest in a number of AM&C initiatives that leverage the company’s unmatched knowledge of chemicals and vast manufacturing infrastructure

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In recent years, Kodak has undergone a rebirth under the leadership of Executive Chairman and CEO Jim Continenza and his management team. Leveraging its expertise in layering, coating, and advanced materials from over a century of manufacturing film, the company has evolved from a consumer-facing brand into a leading industrial manufacturer.

This strategic evolution has positioned Kodak to expand its existing business serving the pharmaceutical industry. Kodak has been a trusted partner in manufacturing unregulated key starting materials (KSMs) for pharmaceutical applications for years, a fact that is not widely known. Kodak supplies KSMs to premier U.S. and multi-national contract development and manufacturing organizations (CDMOs). Today, the company is taking the next step in expanding that business, revitalizing existing infrastructure at its 1200-sq-acre Eastman Business Park in Rochester, N.Y., to build a $40 million, state-of-the-art cGMP facility to manufacture FDA-regulated Class I and Class II pharmaceutical products, such as healthcare reagents for testing and medical treatment of patients.

Upon completion of the new facility, Kodak will be prepared to manufacture needed fluids for clinical tests, washes or rinses, and, eventually, intravenous applications. These foundational, critically needed materials will create a pathway for future success in the pharmaceutical supply chain, with plans to expand to other products that are in high demand domestically. The new cGMP plant will ensure consistent quality and a secure, reliable domestic supply chain for research institutions, CDMOs, and healthcare providers. The 30,000-square-foot facility will have the initial capacity to manufacture one million liters per year.

The creation of Kodak’s new facility and business direction is a testament to the vision and leadership of its management team. Recognizing an opportunity for growth in the pharmaceuticals sector, Terry Taber, chief technical officer and senior vice president of Advanced Materials and Chemicals, engaged in high-level strategic planning with Continenza, which set this initiative in motion and laid the foundation for expansion plans.

From there, Kevin Williams, vice president of Advanced Materials and Technical Solutions, took the reins, overseeing the facility's construction and assembling its staff to bring the initiative to life. With the full support of Kodak’s leadership, the project gained momentum, focusing on construction in 2024 in anticipation of 2025 product shipments. Throughout this process, the management team’s diligence ensured the successful completion of the build-out, which includes dozens of clean rooms, treatment systems with custom process equipment, and an overall energy-efficient design.

So why now, and why Kodak? Continenza and his team see a need to bring more manufacturing back to the U.S., in both pharmaceuticals and other products in commercial printing and coated films or substrates. Producing critical products domestically helps achieve that goal and will reduce the country's reliance on imports from other countries. What’s more, this business is expected to generate significant new pharmaceutical-related job opportunities in Upstate New York within its first year.

Kodak’s latest business will produce pharmaceutical products identified as essential, some of which have lapsed into chronic national shortage. The company hopes to help address future challenges like the ones the U.S. health systems faced during the pandemic and during recent natural disasters. For example, flooding from 2024’s Hurricane Helene impacted the operations of a major manufacturing plant in North Carolina, leading to a crisis-inducing shortage of saline and other IV fluids.

Kodak continues to leverage its expertise in chemical design and manufacturing, along with its adaptable manufacturing infrastructure, specifically the company’s 1,200-acre Eastman Business Park in Rochester. Backed by the longstanding reputation of its iconic brand, Kodak is now bringing the quality and reliability that consumers and industry leaders have come to associate with the brand to the pharmaceuticals industry.

Kodak management’s continued investment in growth initiatives not only further cements its status as an expert in advanced materials and chemicals, but also as an America-first manufacturing leader whose capabilities will further strengthen the country’s pharmaceuticals sector.