text: Investment costs for multipurpose plants are high in comparison with product output. However, they vary considerably, depending on the location, size of equipment and degree of sophistication (e.g., automation, containment, quality of equipment, complexity of infrastructure).  An example for a cGMP multipurpose plant built in the US is shown in Table 9. The investment cost of $21 million comprises just the equipment and installation. The building, property and external services are excluded. For comparison purposes, the investment cost per m reactor volume is used. In this case, it is $0.9 million. The amount includes the cost of the reaction vessel itself plus an equitable part of the ancillary equipment, like feeding tanks, piping, pumps & process control. If larger or smaller reactors were installed, the unit cost per m would decrease or decrease with the exponent 0.5, respectively. Hence, by increasing the equipment size manufacturing costs on a per kilogram (kg) basis typically decrease substantially. Also, costs for a plant that is used for the production of non regulated intermediates only would be substantially lower. Pharma companies tend to spend up to ten times more for a plant with the same capacity. In contrast, investment costs in developing countries, particularly in India or China, are considerably lower.