Cambrex, a contract manufacturer of intermediates and active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), plans to expand pilot-plant capabilities at its facility in High Point, North Carolina with the installation of a fourth reactor suite. The $2.4-million investment will increase the site’s reactor capacity by around 30%.

The new 400-square-foot will feature two 2,000 -iter reactors and a 0.6-square-meter. Hastelloy filter dryer and is expected to be fully operational by early 2018.

In a second investment at the High Point site, Cambrex is to upgrade its analytical chromatography data systems for quality control and analytical research and devlopment to new, Empower 3 software. Empower will be introduced in the third quarter and fourth quarter of 2017 and will bring enhanced capability, integrity and compliance to the site’s analytical systems, noted the company. 

Cambrex acquired the 35,000-square-foot High Point site, formerly PharmaCore, Inc., in October 2016. At the North Carolina facility, Cambrex produces APIs and intermediates requiring multi-step synthetic processes in batch sizes from milligrams to 100 kg to support clinical trials from Phase I to Phase III. The site is licensed with the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to manufacture Schedule II to Schedule V controlled substances. The acquisition enhanced Cambrex’s portfolio of small-molecule API services and complements its large-scale, multi-purpose manufacturing facilities in the US and Europe.

Source: Cambrex