The contract development and manufacturing organisation (CDMO) said it is investing €3.7m ($4.4m) into its site in Liestal, Switzerland to increase its small molecule development services and refurbish its purification capabilities.
Around €2m of the investment will be used to add automation equipment at the plant “to facilitate development services and an extensive upgrading and expansion of analytical equipment,” the firm said. But despite the automation tech, the firm expects an increase in the overall number of development staff.
The rest of the investment will be used to build a mini-plant and refurbish current purification capabilities at the site, to meet growing market demands in the g to kg’s range and at a scale of 1-70 liters, the firm said.
“The introduction of this new mini-plant will enable us to run small-scale batches for our customers, while at the same time demonstrating the routes readiness for further scale-up and addressing their material requirements for early-phase clinical stages,” Juerg Burger, managing director of CordenPharma Switzerland, said in a press release.
The expansion comes a week after the CDMO announced it was buying a highly potent active pharmaceutical ingredient (HPAPI) plant from Pfizer in Boulder, Colorado.