North America is the Ravensburg-based company's most important market. Around half of its customers are based in North America. Vetter's first manufacturing facility outside of Germany is currently being established in suburban Chicago. The facility is scheduled to become operational at the start of the fourth quarter of 2010. The Chicago manufacturing facility will focus exclusively on preclinical to Phase IIb projects; once projects reach Phase III, they will be transferred to the company's German facilities in Ravensburg and Langenargen for large-scale production.

Vetter Managing Director Peter Sölkner expects that the company's greater commitment to the North American market will also lead to additional utilisation of production capacity at the company's German manufacturing sites.

The new sales office in Skokie will be managed by Troy Carpenter, who was appointed President of Vetter Pharma International USA Inc. He will be in charge of Vetter's sales and marketing activities in North America, which is the world's largest pharmaceutical market.

The new office replaces Vetter's Pennsylvania sales office in Yardley that was founded in 1983. Troy Carpenter was previously Director, Key Account Management for Sartorius-Stedim Biotech, and also acted as key account manager for Vetter from 2002 to 2007.