Pharma facility news in brief
pharmafile | November 18, 2013 | News story | Manufacturing and Production | Actavis, Bend Research and WuXi PharmaTech, China Pharma, GlaxoSmithKline, manufacturing, nibs
GlaxoSmithKline is planning to boost in-house production of pharmaceuticals in India by building a brand new facility with an investment of around £85 million ($137m). Chief executive Sir Andrew Witty said the location of the new factory is yet to be finalised, but that the lead site is in Bangalore and the plant will make use of “leading edge technologies including continuous manufacturing and automated systems”. When completed in 2017, the facility will produce drugs for the domestic market with capacity of up to eight billion tablets and one billion capsules a year.
Actavis has revealed that one of the plants to be closed as a result of its merger with Watson last year will be a facility in Lincoln County, North Carolina, with the loss of around 310 jobs by the time it ceases production in mid-2015. The 150,000 sq. ft. unit makes prescription and over-the-counter pharmaceuticals. Production of some lines will be shifted to a plant in Salt Lake City, Utah, while others will be outsourced to contract manufacturers.
China Pharma Holdings says construction and validation of its manufacturing facility for injectable pharmaceuticals – designed to bring the plant into line with China’s 2011 Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) standards revision – is on track for completion by the end of 2013. The company has seen its sales and profits under pressure in recent quarters as a result of the upgrade to its production capabilities, but is expecting a quick return to growth with the launch of a candesartan product for hypertension in China this month.
Capsugel subsidiary Bend Research is investing $20 million to expand commercial-scale manufacturing of spray-dried dispersion (SDD) formulations, with the addition of two high-capacity spray dryer process trains at its Oregon, US, plant. The new capacity is expected to be validated and ready for business by mid-2015 and will enhance Bend’s ability to handle high-risk/high-potency compounds. Bend’s SDD technology has been licensed on a non-exclusive basis to drugmakers including Eli Lilly and Bristol-Myers Squibb, and is used to improve the bioavailability of poorly-soluble compounds.
Chinese contract research and manufacturing services provider WuXi PharmaTech said during its third-quarter results statement last week that it intends to follow up its $50 million investment programme in biopharmaceutical production capacity with a similar effort to boost its small-molecule capabilities. The biologics ramp-up means it can now handle Phase III and commercial scale production of protein and antibody-based drugs. The new plant – in Chengdu – is expected to come online in 2015 and will help the small-molecule business to grow, as WuXi’s current commercial facility in Jinshan is running at full capacity.
Phil Taylor
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