The Roche healthcare group in Basel said on Friday it plans to invest some SFr170 million ($95 million) to build a new manufacturing plant for vitamin E in Sisseln, canton Aargau.

In a statement, Roche said the new facility, with an annual production capacity of 25,000 tonnes, would incorporate the latest technologies and production processes.

It added that the project was part of a global plan aimed at upgrading production facilities to the latest technological standards and ensuring that manufacturing operations were located as strategically as possible.

In the medium term, the Sisseln plant will replace existing plants at Nutley (New Jersey) and Sisseln itself.

Sisseln is one of Roche's most important production sites in the Vitamins and Fine Chemicals Division.

Vitamin E plays a major role in protecting body tissues from harmful reactions that can be caused by normal metabolic processes or environmental toxins. The vitamin has a wide range of uses in the food and pharmaceutical industries, and in modern animal production.

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