The contract manufacturing firm said it will build the new lab at a site in Uppsala, Sweden, explaining that the facility will have capacity to process 10,000 plasma samples a week.
Fredrik Lehmann, General Manager at Recipharm Development in Uppsala told us the laboratory will offer a range of bioanalysis services, with a focus on the assessment of clinical and toxicology samples.
He added that the site will conduct bioanalysis work for a variety of drug types “mostly small molecule, but not exclusively, some large molecules will also be handled.”
Nordic capacity
Sweden is a base of operations for some of the largest drug manufacturers in the world. For example, Pfizer and AstraZeneca both have production operations in the country.
But there is a lack of good laboratory practice (GLP) standard bioanalysis labs in Sweden and across the Nordic region as a whole according to Lehmann, who cited the shortage alongside customer demand as a driver for the investment.
“Some major pharma might, or might not, have capacity in-house, but looking at all the GLP certificates that are issued in Sweden, there are not that many” he said, adding that “and the majority of those GLP labs do not perform bioanalysis.”
At present Recipharm contracts bioanalysis work to a third party laboratory. However, according to Lehmann “we will not continue working with that vendor now that we have the capacity in-house.”
The firm plans to recruit several chemists in the coming months and aims to more than double its team of 35 in the next couple of years.