Cambrex Corporation, a small molecule company providing drug substance and analytical services, announced plans to expand its facility in Edinburgh, Scotland, doubling the current footprint to 15,000 square feet.
The site, to which Cambrex gained access to via its acquisition of Avista, currently has 50 employees. Cambrex announced that the expansion will add additional laboratory space to enable the recruitment of up to 40 more scientists, “with the potential for further growth in the future.”
Cambrex’s Edinburgh facility currently provides solid form development services, including investigations such as salt, co-crystal and polymorph screening, as well as crystallization process development and GMP analytical services.
According to the company, the expanded laboratory space will allow the installation of additional instruments and reactors for larger scale crystallization studies and screening capabilities.
Additionally, the company plans to install ‘ultra-performance’ liquid chromatography (UPLC) and gas chromatography instruments, as well as additional process analytical technology (PAT) tools.
Mark Benger, Edinburgh site director, said in a statement that the expansion answers a market demand and enables the company to serve more clients in the solid state screening market.
“We have increasingly been asked by clients for additional services such as larger scale crystallization and we will now be able to provide these as well as adding greater efficiency and capacity,” he added.
The construction work is expected to begin by the end of August, with a target completion date at the end of 2019. The cost of the investment made on the facility expansion was not disclosed.
Cambrex acquired Avista in 2018 for $252m (€221.6m), entering the market of early stage small molecule development and testing, becoming an integrated contract development and manufacturing organisation (CDMO). Prior to the acquisition, the facility in Edinburgh was known as Solid Form Solutions.
Shortly after the acquisition, the company also invested $1m to expand its High Point, NC-based site, rising the investments made in this facility to $9m.
