TAPI Mexico Invests MX$140M in Oncology API Production

TAPI Mexico is investing MX$140 million (US$8 million) to expand API production at its Lerma plant, targeting the oncology ingredient 5-fluorouracil and reinforcing Mexico's push to rebuild domestic pharmaceutical raw-material capacity under Plan Mexico. The project matters for Mexico's health and trade sectors because the country still imports a large share of active pharmaceutical ingredients despite growing nearshoring interest from the US and Canada.  

TAPI Mexico announced a MX$140 million (US$8 million) investment to expand its active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) plant in Lerma, State of Mexico, with the goal of strengthening domestic production of oncology treatment inputs. The company also received the Hecho en Mexico (Made in Mexico) distinction, becoming the first API producer in the country to obtain the seal. The expansion advances Mexico's broader effort to reduce its dependence on imported pharmaceutical raw materials.

Pedro Goya, General Director, TAPI Mexico, says the project reflects the company's deepening commitment to the country, noting the plant "represents a strategic point for medicine supply" to multiple global markets. The first phase, which begins this year, involves MX$40 million (US$2.3 million) in direct investment from TAPI Mexico combined with MX$100 million (US$5.7 million) through a co-investment with a domestic supplier to develop national production of 5-fluorouracil, an active ingredient used in cancer treatments. A second phase, planned for 2027, will allocate an additional MX$60 million (US$3.4 million) to expand capacity for other product lines at the facility, which is the only TAPI plant in the Americas.

Mexico's pharmaceutical raw-material capacity has been a policy priority since much of the country's API manufacturing base disappeared in the 1990s, leaving the sector reliant on imports, particularly from Asia. TAPI Mexico's expansion aligns with Plan Mexico, the federal government's industrial strategy to rebuild technological development and domestic drug manufacturing. Javier Dávila, Director General of Planning and Evaluation, Ministry of Economy, says the project supports federal objectives to strengthen research, technological development, and national medicine production, and noted that Mexico previously built expertise in API and vaccine manufacturing that has since eroded. The initiative also lands amid a wider nearshoring push in the pharmaceutical sector: Mexico's Ministry of Economy, Ministry of Health, and COFEPRIS recently signed seven agreements with a Canadian trade mission tied to a broader US$2 billion pharmaceutical investment estimate for Hidalgo, part of a national strategy to expand API self-sufficiency.  

Mexico currently manufactures 82 active pharmaceutical ingredients, with the government coordinating alongside COFEPRIS and the Ministry of Health to broaden that capacity, underscoring the scale of the opportunity TAPI Mexico's expansion is tapping into.

The Lerma facility, originally established in 1983 and acquired by Teva in 2004, employs more than 210 people and produces 35 APIs across 12 production lines, primarily serving oncology, respiratory, and endocrinology treatments. Its output supplies 68 medications listed in Mexico's compendium of health supplies and is exported to Canada, the United States, the European Union, South America, and the domestic market. The plant holds regulatory approvals from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Mexico's Federal Commission for the Protection Against Sanitary Risks (COFEPRIS), and health authorities in Europe, Brazil, and Japan.

The expansion is expected to generate 10 specialized direct jobs sustained for a minimum of five years, alongside up to 250 indirect jobs during the construction and start-up phase. Raymundo Tenorio, Director General of Industry, State of Mexico Government, says the investment reinforces confidence in the state, which concentrates more than 1,300 economic units in the chemical-pharmaceutical sector and generates approximately 60,000 jobs.  

He adds that the project incorporates advanced technology and knowledge, and directly contributes to public health security while reinforcing a strategic industry. This positions the State of Mexico's pharmaceutical cluster as one of the country's most active hubs for the kind of capacity-building describing pharma and medtech as industrial lighthouses benefiting from Plan Mexico's prioritization of API and medical-device manufacturing.

To earn the Hecho en Mexico distinction, granted by the Ministry of Economy, TAPI Mexico had to demonstrate that its processes, labor, and raw materials meet national production criteria. Goya says the company sources more than 75% of its raw material volume from local suppliers, describing the plant as part of a supply chain that generates jobs and economic opportunities within the country. With the second investment phase scheduled for 2027, TAPI Mexico's cumulative commitment at the Lerma site is expected to reach MX$200 million (US$11.5 million), reinforcing the plant's role as the company's sole manufacturing base in the Americas and as a supply point for critical oncology treatments produced domestically.