Under the collaboration, Danish processing equipment maker GEA will carry out good manufacturing practice (GMP) standard spray drying on the German chemical firm’s behalf at its test facility in Copenhagen.
Michael Wahlberg, head of the GEA test centre, told in-Pharmatechnologist the deal is focused on the use of spray drying for the production of active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) for trial-stage and pilot-scale projects.
He explained that: "BASF work with the customer to decide what technology is the best and develop the complete process. This is always done in a non-GMP facility.
"Afterwards, when cGMP conditions are required, GEA Niro becomes involved and handles this production at our facilities."
Wahlberg also said that although “contract pharma manufacturing is only a small part of GEA Niro's business…we believe it is very important to grow the market for pharmaceutical spray drying.
He added that: “The agreement with BASF is an important part of this, as we believe that together we can drive this even further,” going on to say that GEA is also working with a number of pharma firms, but could not go into details.
The Danish firm began offering contract spray drying last October in an effort to raise drug industry awareness of the technique’s benefits for API production.
The Copenhagen test centre houses two GEA Niro PharmaSD units: a laboratory sized PSD-1 for initial development stage work; and a PSD-4 commercial sized unit that is capable of producing around 70kg of an API per hour.
BASF is one of the first firm’s to have opted for GEA’s service and, according to director of global business management and custom synthesis Folker Ruchatz, expects the partnership to yield significant benefits.
In a press statement, Dr Ruchatz explained that while BASF has substantial know-how in spray drying, working with GEA gives the firm access to a “superior facility” and adds GMP quality manufacturing to its portfolio.
Company spokesperson Stefanie Hofman was also positive about the market for spray drying, telling in-PharmaTechnologist that: "Poor bioavailability of drugs is one of the major issues of the pharmaceutical industry. We very clearly see a growing demand for product, process and technology solutions, to cope with this challenge.
"This co-operation [with GEA Niro] will expand our presence in higher end of the value chain and will provide opportunities for back integration with the existing custom synthesis services as well as for synergies with the Excipients business."