Thermo Fisher Scientific Investing $150 Million in Sterile Injectables Development and Manufacturing
Marshall Crew |
Thermo Fisher Scientific is investing $150 million to provide additional capacity for sterile liquid and lyophilized product development and commercial manufacturing. Marshall Crew, Group Vice President, Strategy, Thermo Fisher Scientific, detailed the expansions at the DCAT Week ’19 Member Company Announcement Forum, which was held March 18, 2019 in New York.
The $150-million investment is in addition to $100 million that was invested in the company’s facilities in the past 12 months. Included in the site expansion projects are the company’s sites in Monza and Ferentino, Italy, and Greenville, North Carolina. Each of the sites will be equipped with aseptic filling lines and isolator technology.
At its site in Monza, Italy, the company is completing the construction of a sterile injectables development center with vial filling and automated lyophilizer loading and unloading. The site is expanding its commercial liquid-filled and lyophilized vial and prefilled syringe / cartridge manufacturing capacity with additional filling lines and lyophilizers with automated loading and unloading. The robotic prefilled syringe / cartridge line is flexible and can accommodate a broad range of containers in nested tubs.
At the company’s site in Greenville, North Carolina, the company is installing an Optima high-speed, high-volume prefilled syringe / cartridge line. In addition, the company plans to install new commercial vial filling and automated visual inspection lines. The company will also add a new formulation and process development laboratory that includes two lab-scale lyophilizers with smart software to enable faster lyophilization cycle optimization.
In addition, the company is expanding at its site in Ferentino, Italy with a new building for development that will have a new vial filling line and lyophilizers with automated loading and unloading. The site expansion will also increase the company’s commercial vial filling line and lyophilization capacity with new lines.