Juniper invests in tablet technology for UK site
Juniper completed the validation of the RoTab press at its facility in Nottingham, UK this week.
It said the technology is designed to manufacture drug batches in the 50g to 50kg range in a variety of single and bi-layer formats.
A company spokesman told us “the extended capability gives us the scale to meet clients’ demands in later phase clinical trials as opposed to commercial scale.”
Scale
The largest clinical trial in history – which began in the UK last year – is examining the effects of a single daily dose of aspirin on the long term health of 11,000 people who have been diagnosed with early stage cancer.
In theory, based on our calculations, Juniper’s new tablet press could make the 48,180,000 tablets needed for the full 12-year long study in around 143 days, assuming it was operated for eight hours a day.
With this in mind, we asked if Juniper would consider using the new technology for commercial-scale production.
The firm told us “We could potentially look at projects that involve niche, low-volume licensed tablets in the future but that’s not the driver for this investment.”
Expansion
The investment is one of a number Juniper has made in recent months.
Last November it bought a Xelodose powder micro-dosing system for the production of Phase I trial materials.
More recently Juniper acquired spray drying technology capable of producing 20kg batches and a Becomix homogenizer it will use to make topical and semi-solid production for Phase III trials.
