The firm has installed new packing and labelling lines for clinical and commercial operations as well as three new tablet counters and a Klockner CP11 blister packaging machine at its facility in Tredegar, Wales.
A company spokeswoman told Outsourcing-pharma.com that: “Penn has double digit growth ambitions and clinical and commercial packing is a growing part of our business” explaining that the additional capacity will be used to service “contracts for commercial product importation, release testing and final packing prior to commercial release.”
The new techs are part of an ongoing £14m ($22.7m) expansion of the Tradegar plant and follow just a few weeks after Penn unveiled plans for new capacity for high-potency active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) containment capacity.
The firm told us that: “Our new facility will be operational end of Q1 2013 and will require investment in skilled staff in a number of disciplines including process engineers, validation specialists and trained analysts.”
UK capacity
The UK’s contract pharmaceutical packing and distribution sector has seen considerable growth with – since January - Almac and Brecon Pharmaceuticals opening new storage and distribution facilities for both commercial and trial supplies.
We asked Penn’s spokesperson how competitive this part of the UK’s contracting space is at the moment and she told us that: “The outsourcing sector remains buoyant” which suggests that while capacity may have increased, demand for services is still strong.
This interpretation is supported by comments Penn CEO Richard Yarwood made in March during an interview with Outsourcing-pharma.com about the firm’s expansion.
“We are already in talks with a number of potential clients about the use of the facility” and that “outsourcing is on the increase and we are in a strong position to be able to capitalise on these trends.”