AB BioTechnologies (AB), a Bloomington, Indiana-based contract development and manufacturing services provider, has added aseptic filling and lyophilization capabilities to a new 23,000-square-foot manufacturing facility it is constructing in Bloomington, which AB announced in January 2017. The company has selected Vanrx Pharmasystems, a British Columbia, Canada-based manufacturer of sterile filling systems, to provide aseptic filling and lyophilizer loading systems for the facility.

AB’s expansion into automated aseptic filling and lyophilization strengthens its existing offering of formulation, analytical services, lyophilization cycle development, and good laboratory practice/toxicology manufacturing.

The full Vanrx system, which can support clinical and commercial drug production, consists of the SA25 Aseptic Filling Workcell, Accumulator, and Lyophilizer Loader that is a gloveless robotic isolator system for aseptic filling and lyophilization of sterile injectable pharmaceuticals. The equipment will be installed within a prefabricated modular cleanroom from Biologics Modular, a Brownsburg, Indiana-based designer and manufacturer of modular facilities, and attached to a lyophilizer from SP Scientific, a Warminster, Pennsylvania-headquartered scientific equipment supplier.

The SA25 will be installed for liquid GMP manufacturing by the fourth quarter of 2017, with added lyophilization capabilities beginning in 2018. Vanrx Aseptic Filling Workcells enable the production of liquid or freeze-dried drug products in a variety of vial, syringe, and cartridge formats.

Source: AB BioTechnologies