Encap hikes capacity with new premises
invested approximately £1.2 million (€1.7m)in new premises in order
to boost its manufacturing capacity by 50 per cent.
Encap, which specialises in the encapsulation of liquids and powders, provides contract development and manufacturing services to the pharmaceutical and nutraceutical industries, and has also developed a range of specialised drug delivery systems.
The new premises at Oakbank Park, Livingstone, provide not only an increase in Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) production areas, but also provide a 200 per cent hike in Encap's laboratory space, both for routine analysis in formulation development and quality control/assurance and Encap's in-house R&D efforts.
A spokesman for the company said that increase was in part a result of an increase in the number of companies seeking Encap's services, but also came from a recognition that the company has to expand both in capacity and the technologies it can offer to keep up with the rapidy-changing pharmaceutical marketplace.
Encap's primary speciaity is liquid fill hard capsules, and one of its developments, the DuoCap, has already reached the market in two probiotic supplements marketed by BioCare. This technology allows the delivery of multiple ingredients that could ordinarily not be mixed together in the same capsule.
Another of Encap's recent drug delivery innovations is its Abusolve technology, designed to prevent misuse of drugs, either for recreational purposes or the more sinister issue of drink spiking in so-called date-rape incidents. The battery of technologies that come under this Abusolve banner, which in the main are based on high melting point formulations filled into hard capsules - prevent most of this type of abuse.
The spokesman said the new facility would accelerate the development of new delivery systems at Encap. The new unit is still in the validation process, but is scheduled to undergo regulatory inspections in the next few weeks, he added.
