Exhibit 99.3

West Pharmaceutical Services Provides Update on Kinston Plant Status

Lionville, PA, February 4, 2003-- West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. (NYSE: WST)
today provides an update about progress that has been achieved in an effort to
understand and address the cause and impact of the explosion that occurred on
January 29 in one of the two buildings at its plant on Rouse Road in Kinston,
North Carolina.

The severely damaged building hosts the Automated Compounding System (ACS),
where bulk rubber materials are mixed into formulations for molding into medical
device components, as well as a molding and finishing area, where finished
components are produced. The ACS area was most severely damaged in the explosion
and fire and is presumed to be a total loss at this time. Although West's access
to the building has been very limited until today, initial visual observations
by West personnel suggest that damage to the production facility is far less
severe and it appears that a substantial part of the machinery, tooling and
finished inventory may be recoverable.

The ACS at the Kinston plant is the largest of West's five U.S. rubber
compounding facilities, and one of ten worldwide. To ensure the continued
availability of critical healthcare products, rubber compounding requirements
previously handled by the Kinston ACS will be shifted to alternate West
facilities on an interim basis. West is working with its customers and the Food
and Drug Administration to manage the temporary transfer of molding and
finishing operations to other facilities in order to minimize interruptions in
supply.

"We are encouraged by the progress of the work thus far, in collaboration with
our customers, in devising alternate production plans," said Don Morel, West's
President and Chief Executive Officer. "We are additionally encouraged by the
condition of the equipment and tooling in the molding and finishing areas of the
building. In the last two days, our manufacturing and engineering personnel and
technical consultants were able to visit the building to begin evaluating the
damage first-hand. While it is still too early to estimate all of the damage and
effects, our preliminary assessment is that the situation is much more
manageable than we first imagined. We now need to complete a more detailed
assessment.

"It is obviously critical that any work we do in the damaged site can be safely
performed, and we will work with environmental authorities to ensure that this
is the case," Morel continued. "We are pursuing our own investigation into what
happened and we will continue to cooperate with the ongoing investigations by
North Carolina Departments of Labor and Natural Resources, The United States
Chemical Safety Board, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Bureau of
Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms and all local authorities who are investigating
last Wednesday's events."

About West Pharmaceutical Services
West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. (NYSE: WST) is a global drug delivery
technology company that applies proprietary materials science, formulation
research and manufacturing innovation to advance the quality, therapeutic value,
development speed and rapid market availability of pharmaceuticals, biologics,
vaccines and consumer healthcare products. West is the world's premiere provider
of standard-setting systems and device components for parenterally administered
medicines and an emerging leader in the development of advanced formulation
technologies for the transmucosal delivery of drugs. Internationally
headquartered in Lionville, Pennsylvania, West supports its partners and
customers from 50 locations throughout North America, South America, Europe,
Mexico, Japan, Asia and the Pacific and Australia. For more information visit
West at www.westpharma.com.






Certain statements contained in this Press Release that are not historical are
"forward looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities
Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The words "estimate," "expect," "intend",
"believe" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking
statements. These forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and
uncertainties. The Company's actual results may differ materially from those
expressed in any forward looking statement and are dependent on a number of
factors including, but not limited to: sales demand, timing of customers'
projects; successful development of proprietary drug delivery technologies and
systems; regulatory, licensee and/or market acceptance of products based on
those technologies; competitive pressures; the strength or weakness of the U.S.
dollar; inflation; the cost of raw materials; the availability of credit
facilities; the timely replacement of fire-damaged production capacity at the
Company's Kinston, NC facility, any related loss of sales and insurance
recoveries for property losses and/or liability to third parties resulting from
that event; and, statutory tax rates.