Jubilant HollisterStier LLC is planning a massive investment in its Spokane-area operations that will double its current capacity.

The Spokane-based manufacturer and packager of vaccines and therapeutics estimates the project could cost upward of $70 million.

The expansion will add a two-story, roughly 120,000-square-foot addition to the company’s existing facilities at 3525 N. Regal, which will enable the company to double its current manufacturing capacity and add 400 employees over the next three years.

About 100,000 square feet will be dedicated to two new manufacturing lines the company plans to install, while roughly 20,000 square feet will be warehouse space.

Integrated Project Services LLC, a Pennsylvania-based pharmaceutical manufacturing consulting company, designed the expansion. A contractor hasn’t been selected yet.

The two-phase expansion would be located next to the company’s current facility on roughly 7 acres of land owned by the pharmaceuticals manufacturer. 

The company’s board of directors must authorize the project before it can move forward, but work on the project is expected to begin this year. 

Jubilant HollisterStier currently has the capacity to fill 110 million vials a year. With the expansion, the company will be able to fill 220 million vials.

As of last December, Jubilant HollisterStier had 850 employees in Spokane. 

Jubilant confirmed in December that the company was manufacturing therapeutic remdesivir, a drug that the Federal Drug Administration approved two months earlier as a treatment for COVID-19.

Amit Arora, president of the company, said at the time that the company was also working on four other COVID-19 related products, including at least two vaccines, though Arora declined to disclose specifics. 

Jubilant HollisterStier is the contract manufacturing arm of Jubilant Pharma Holdings Inc., the Yardley, Pennsylvania-based pharmaceutical company with more than 50 operations across 22 states. The company also has a global presence with an office in Singapore.

Jubilant HollisterStier serves 25 customers. Those clients are primarily in North America, but the company also has customers in Europe and Asia.