SGS investing $1.7m to expand biopharmaceutical testing capabilities

The investment will be at the company’s Chicago, IL-based facility, which currently offers a range of analytical services, and covers both “expertise” and equipment, the company said.

SGS is currently in the hiring process, Gayla Velez, the site's general manager told us, and will initially be hiring a biologics manager, a sales representative, and several scientists.

“The choice to invest in Lincolnshire was based upon the synergies already present at the site,”​ she added.

New services will focus on quality control analysis and stability testing of biopharmaceuticals with equipment installation to be completed in the first quarter of 2019.

“We were already performing sterility, micro, LAL, particulate matter, chromatography, cIEF on biopharmaceuticals in Lincolnshire and now we are expanding into the rest of the testing panel for biologics,”​ Velez said.

The expansion is part of the company’s broader investment program across its global laboratory network. SGS is August 2017 announced a 50% expansion at its Lincolnshire laboratory, which grew its footprint to approximately 58,000 square feet.

It also has increased its extractables and leachables capabilities at its sites in Fairfield, New Jersey, and Shanghai, China. The company’s French facilities at Poitiers and Villeneuve-la-Garenne have respectively received investment in bioanalytical capabilities and elemental analysis.