Ecolab, Inc., a St. Paul. Minn., pharmaceutical ingredients manufacturing plant, cut the ribbon recently on a new factory in King of Prussia. Harold Brubaker covered the venture in The Philadelphia Inquirer.

The $3.7 billion Ecolab acquisition of Purolite was a strategic decision to spur growth in both the traditional-drug and faster-growing pharmaceutical industries.

Ecolab intends to overcome a Purolite inability to meet the demand for resin beads used in drug manufacturing. The new site at 2201 Renaissance Boulevard — a half a mile from Purolite’s King of Prussia headquarters — is part of that solution.

The Philadelphia Business Journal reported in May that Purolite was spending $40 million on the plant.

Purolite is also adding capacity in Europe, Ecolab’s chief executive told Wall Street analysts last month.

“There are customers waiting,” Hayley E. Crowe, an Ecolab executive who now runs Purolite.

The first product the new plant is expected to manufacture is used to treat people with high cholesterol. The raw material will be shipped from Purolite’s factory in Romania.

Additional information on this change of ownership for Purolite and new plant for Ecolab is at The Philadelphia Inquirer.