The whole world takes Excedrin from Lincoln's Novartis plant

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By MATT OLBERDING/Lincoln Journal Star

Novartis hasn’t even begun full production of its new portfolio of over-the-counter drugs, and already the Lincoln plant on Nebraska 6  has produced a new one.

Excedrin Back and Body, created by the local research and development staff, began rolling off the conveyor belts  April 1.

It’s an expansion of the Excedrin product line, which the Swiss pharmaceutical company announced in  January 2006 would be made in Lincoln, along with several other drugs the company purchased from Bristol Myers Squibb.

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Richard Halama boxes Excedrin Back & Body pain reliever at the Novartis plant in Lincoln, where the over-the-counter drug was developed and manufactured. (Eric Gregory)

Local plant manager Marlene Leuenberger said the new Excedrin product is part of Novartis’ plan to “grow that brand into what we believe its full potential to be.”

Lincoln will play a key role in that, Leuenberger said. For for the foreseeable future, all the Excedrin in the world will be produced in Lincoln.

Much of the work to integrate the new production has been done, and production began on Excedrin in Lincoln late last year.

Full production of Excedrin and the other brands Novartis moved here — Comtrex, No-Doz and Bufferin — won’t begin until August, Leuenberger said, but so far she’s been pleased with how smoothly the move has gone.

“There have been fewer bumps in the road than I anticipated in a project of this magnitude,” she said.

The company has invested about $25 million in the Lincoln plant over the past 15 months and hired 100 new employees, most of them locally, with plans to hire 23 more.

Most of the money was spent to remodel the plant to accommodate the new production and more employees, but a 15,000-square-foot addition is scheduled to open in the next few weeks.

John Kolar, director of Excedrin production operations, called the new addition “a very nice home.”

It’s not quite ready for production yet, he said, because needed manufacturing and processing equipment hasn’t arrived.

When Excedrin production hits full capacity and the plant begins producing the other drugs the company moved here — Comtrex, No-Doz and Bufferin — the Lincoln plant’s output of pills will go from a little more than 2 billion a year  to about 6 billion a year, Kolar said.

That, combined with an existing product line that includes Benefiber, Tavist-D and Triaminic, makes the Lincoln plant Novartis’ largest producer of over-the-counter drugs in the world.

“Over 50 percent of OTC volume comes out of this site, and it’s growing all the time,” Leuenberger said.

The public may get a chance to see the expansion. The company hopes to have an open house sometime in September. Plans are very tentative, though, and depend on the production transition staying on schedule, she said.

Reach Matt Olberding at 473-2647 or molberding@journalstar.com.