DSM announced this week that from now on it will supply technologies and services for the initial development phases of new medicines - supplementing its existing service package of building blocks and active ingredients for pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical products and production and packaging of medicines in finished dosage forms.
In order to enable this shift into new activities DSM will expand its chemical process research activities at its Rescom site in Regensburg, Germany. In addition, the company has acquired a 30 per cent minority stake in contract research organisation Syncom in Groningen, the Netherlands.
Feike Sijbesma, a member of the managing board of DSM commented :"In our package of services for the pharmaceutical industry, service in the initial development phases was missing. With this unique concept we can provide the speed, innovation and reliability that our customers require. We believe this move will strengthen our standing in the pharmaceutical industry."
In a bid to increase speed, reliability and innovation in the development of new medicines, DSM claims that it can offer a full-service concept which meets this requirement of the pharmaceutical industry.
To date, DSM has focused mainly on the later clinical phases and bulk production of advanced intermediates and active ingredients.
The company maintains that the new relationship with Syncom - an organisation that carries out advanced organic synthesis and possesses expertise in the area of chiral compounds - will marry well with the chemical process research carried out at Rescom's - a 'profit centre' within DSM Pharma Chemicals. The relationship will involve the production of multi-kilogram batches of new ingredients for use in preclinical and early clinical drug development research.
With development and production facilities in the Netherlands, Austria and the USA, DSM Pharma Chemicals is one of the three business groups of DSM Pharmaceutical Products. It develops and produces pharmaceutical intermediates and active ingredients, mostly on an exclusive basis.