Chemicals group Clariant has announced plans to establish a research-based Technology Centre that will support the pharmaceutical industry in the commercialisation of new drugs.
The centre will be located at Clariant's facilities at Höchst near Frankfurt in Germany and will house more than 50 employees working in R&D and production. The facility will focus on technology development, targeted process development and broad-spectrum small-scale manufacturing to meet the Phase I and Phase II requirements of pharmaceutical producers.
The facility will bring together a broad cross-section of technologies including organometallics, chirals, biocatalysis, cryogenic synthesis and couplings and condensations. Clariant recently made substantial investments in a kilo-scale production facility and other multi-purpose synthesis capabilities at this location.
According to Ralf Pfirmann, global director for market management at Clariant Pharmaceuticals, one of the primary goals for the centre will be to refine and develop innovative technologies where Clariant is a market leader and to put those technologies to work in offering synthesis solutions to customers.
"Increasingly, we see the pharmaceutical industry looking for outsourcing partners that can achieve very specific synthesis targets through the use of a broad and flexible tool box. At the same time, they are also looking for synthesis solutions that add a great deal of value in an economic manner," he said.
Pfirmann said that Clariant can offer "major differentiating technologies in early, late and final stage syntheses for active pharmaceutical ingredients."