Drug industry disaster concerns prompted lab expansion says Intertek
The UK based quality assurance services firm announced the expansion plan last week, explaining that extra capacity at its laboratory in Royston, near Cambridge, will let it cater for bespoke storage conditions as well as hose typical of ICH requirements.
Chris Vernall, Business Development Director at Intertek Melbourn, told us “many of our global clients who perform formal ICH stability programmes in-house are looking to mitigate the potential risk of damage or loss of samples due to unforeseen or unlikely circumstances.”
Vernall cited extreme weather, flooding, fire, electrical failures, power outages, software failure or even human error as examples, explaining that a desire to mitigate the delays and costs associated with such events is driving demand.
He also said that: “Many of our customers also place a volume of contingency storage with us in order to de-risk their stability programmes.”
Temperature controlled
While disaster storage capacity was a driver for the expansion, Intertek has also seen a surge in demand for more usual storage projects according to Vernall.
“The reason for this latest expansion is because our global client base extends across many product types - from complex drug delivery products, such as inhaled or nasal products, to consumer healthcare and cosmetics” he said, adding that temperature controlled storage is critical to many customers’ product development efforts.
The final driver for the expansion was the ability to conduct stability studies that comply with regulations in different markets.
Vernall told us that: “Our clients operate globally and they launch products across all regions. Intertek conducts GMP pharmaceutical stability studies for all regional regulatory requirements.”
