The UK contract manufacturing organisation (CMO) has announced plans to spend £500,000 ($679,318) to add extra equipment at its facility in Nottingham which – when ongoing validation work is completed and the plant comes online next year – will be able to produce batches of 5,000 syringes.
The investment is part of a wider expansion programme according to site director Ian Lafferty, who said that pre-filled syringes are a relatively underserved by the contract manufacturing industry and therefore an opportunity for Aesica.
“Over the last few years, Aesica has really accelerated its credibility in the aseptic market and pre-filled syringes are a natural evolution towards providing a complete product portfolio for our clients, and a reflection of the direction the wider market is heading.
“Demand is increasing for these products and very few other CDMOs are currently able to supply this in such quantities for clinical trials. Biotechnology companies are already starting to make contact with us and I would envisage a steady uptake across the US and in particular Europe where we are likely to see huge growth rates.”
By 2016 Aesica, which hopes to produce 900,000 pre-filled syringes for customers’ clinical-stage development projects over the next three years, says it is in advanced talks with an existing project about scaling-up production of an injectable drug currently involved in late-stage trials.
Aesica’s predictions about the pre-filled syringe market fit with the results of a recent survey by Transparency Market Research which suggested the development of biopharmaceutical products is driving demand for this type of delivery device and the firms that make them.
It also fits with recent investments by others in the service sector like Vetter and SCM, which hav both upped syringe filling capacity based on an anticipated surge in demand for the pharmaceutical industry.