According to Vindon Scientific’s Director Patrick Jackson, the company, keen on “establishing strategic alliances,” will up capacity at its IMB (Irish Medicine's Board) certified, GMP compliant storage facility in County Waterford, Ireland to 350m3.
Vindon, headquartered in the UK, offers clients stability storage, freezer storage and -80°C Ultra-low temperature storage, servicing the pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical R&D industry.
Jackson, speaking with Outsourcing-Pharma.com, said that though Ireland’s pharmaceutical industry has seen a number of ups and downs in the last few years, Vindon is “seeing an increase in the amount of outsourcing in our particular area as pharma companies are looking at ways of reducing costs.”
“Virtually all of the major pharma companies are watching their revenues decrease because of weak pipelines, patent expirations, and the rise of generics,” he said. “We see these companies more actively seeking outsourcing partners.”
Jackson added: “It makes economic sense to outsource stability storage as development comes in peaks and troughs so the storage requirements are the same, therefore they only pay for the service when required.”
According to the Irish Industrial Development Agency (IDA), nine of the top ten global pharmaceutical companies have operations in Ireland. Though economic pressures have seen facility divestitures and job cuts by industry giant Merck & Co. and Pfizer, R&D is still a major market, with Irish CRO (contract research organization) Icon telling this publication recently that the trend towards outsourcing is set to continue.
Expansion Across the Pond
It is not only Ireland that is seeing an increase in need of storage solutions as Vindon has also announced it will be opening a facility in Orange County to serve the pharma and biopharma industries in California.
The suite – set to be completed mid-2013 - will be the second for Vindon in the States and, according to Jackson will provide “storage at ICH and custom conditions whilst also providing DEA storage with our partner CRO’s.”