According to the contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO), the expansion at the site in Italy also will include the recruitment of additional scientists “to increase the number of generic active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) in the company’s development portfolio.”
The new 150 square meter research and development laboratory will include 14 fume hoods and combine both chemistry and analytical development capabilities.
Cambrex expects building work to be completed by the end of 2018. Equipment installation and validation will follow in Q1 2019.
$5m expansion at Karlskoga, Sweden
Cambrex also recently announced plans to commence a $5m expansion of its Karlskoga, Sweden-based laboratory facilities. The investment will add capacity for process development and scale up, handling of potent substances, crystallization studies, and solid phase characterization.
Work on the new 600 square meter building will begin at the end of Q2 2018. It is expected to be completed in Q2 2019.
According to the company, the building will feature a new technical laboratory to support tech transfer studies – for which the main challenge is the assessment of scale-dependent process variables, explained Ingrid Hegbom Ekman, director of research and development, Cambrex.
“Knowledge transfer between R&D and production can also be a challenge as some observations are more difficult to describe in words than others, and need to be experienced together and discussed while the observation is taking place,” she told us.
“The expansion will facilitate experiments at a larger laboratory scale, in close collaboration with receiving unit engineers, giving them first-hand experience of the process,” she added.
After construction has completed, Hegbom Ekman said future investments will focus on equipment “that will allow in-line reaction monitoring and laboratory equipment that mimics that in the plant.” To support this, Cambrex aims to invest in crystallization and solid phase characterization and the equipment required, she added.
Additionally, the investment will enable potent substances handling at large laboratory scales, as well as high-pressure reactions and parallel synthesis for API route scouting and development. Two analytical development and quality control laboratories and new office space also will be added to support 12 new hires – taking Cambrex’s total employee count at the site to 60.