Containment facility broadens Solutia's scope

Applied chemistry company Solutia has completed the latest phase of a new containment facility to support the supply of highly potent active pharmaceutical ingredients. The facility, which is located at Solutia PSD's site in Bubendorf, Switzerland, is already manufacturing highly-potent pharmaceutical products for clients.

Ed Robinson, president of Solutia's pharmaceutical services division, said: "With the increasing number of potent drugs coming through the pipeline, this new capability will help us enhance the drug development process for clients. We can now deliver chemistry services and commercial supply for experimental drugs, such as oncologics, which is a rapidly growing area of focus for many pharmaceutical companies​."

The new facility allows for the integration of a process research and development laboratory alongside a multi-purpose manufacturing plant. The specialised laboratory and small-scale manufacturing equipment will allow the safe handling of highly potent compounds, up to Category IV. In addition, the facility will accommodate larger-scale manufacturing of Category III compounds.

Mark Griffiths, Solutia's director of engineering, noted that the facility employs a multi-level protection cascade of containment technology, systems and procedures designed to fully isolate highly potent ingredients. "This protection cascade features four levels of isolation, all encapsulated within a rigorous system of Standard Operating Procedures and Unit Operation Procedures​," he added.

The third project phase for Solutia PSD's highly potent API supply service, which will provide integrated laboratory-scale and kilo-scale processing in a new facility, will be completed during the first quarter 2004. The vision's other activities are: fast-track synthesis, chromatography and analytical chemistry.