The facility, in Bogota, houses a formulation lab and a service centre and was designed to meet “internationally recognized certification for the containment and safe handling of Level II and Level IV active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs)” according to Colorcon.
The ability to handle API is important for customers according to regional sales manager Carlos LaCruz, who said: “We can provide specialized support to accelerate development and commercialization of robust, high quality pharmaceutical drug formulations.”
This was echoed by regional technical manager Plinio Sandoval, who said: “Colorcon has invested in new-instrumented equipment, including high shear granulation, an instrumented press machine, advanced film coating equipment and USP dissolution apparatus.
“Access to this advanced technology and analytical tools enables more robust formulation development, provides release profiles and ultimately better prediction for scale-up to manufacturing.”
The Bogota service centre is Colorcon’s fourth in Latin America. The coating technology and formulation services firm has similar sites in Argentina, Mexico and Brazil. It also operates a sales and distribution centre in Venezuela.
The laboratory is the first new site Colorcon has opened since it set up facility in Beijing's YiZhuang Biomedical Park in China last year.