Carbogen Amcis opens large-scale high-potency API plant
pharmafile | February 8, 2010 | News story | Manufacturing and Production | Carbogen Amcis, Dishman, India
Carbogen Amcis, the Swiss subsidiary of Dishman Pharmaceuticals and Chemicals of India, has opened a new high-potency active pharmaceutical ingredient (HPAPI) facility at its parent’s site in Bavla, Ahmedabad.
The unit is claimed to be the first of its kind in India, and one of only a few such facilities worldwide. Carbogen Amcis is a long established player in the HPAPI field, and already operates kilo- and pilot-scale production facilities for these ingredients in Bubendorf, Switzerland.
The facility’s large-scale capacity will be capable of producing multi-tonne quantities of HPAPIs and is expected to support “the growing demand for large volume oncology products”, according to Dishman.
The Indian contract research and manufacturing services (CRAMS) company said it had also seen “considerable interest” in using the facility for cardiovascular and central nervous system-related production.
“Carbogen Amcis’ customers will benefit from economies of scale as their API demands grow,” commented Charlie Johnson, the company’s high-potency business manager. “We also will be able to offer competitive production of API to support life-cycle management.”
The announcement comes as Dishman shakes up activities at Carbogen Amcis in the face of a decline in sales across the group in the third quarter ending December 31, 2009. Total revenues declined 21% to around $48 million, with falls for both the CRAMS division and its ‘marketable molecules’ (bulk drugs and chemical intermediates) business.
Carbogen Amcis has seen its sales slide in recent quarters due to lower demand for small-volume production for API for preclinical and early clinical trials, which was in turn symptomatic of an overall downturn in the clinical research sector during 2009. In the third quarter its sales were down nearly 28% to $7.2 million.
Dishman has now responded by temporarily cutting back staff at the subsidiary from around 400 to 360, and consolidating its early-phase operations in Switzerland at a site in Aarau. Another facility in Hunzenschwil is being refocused on developing technologies, such as micro-reactors and new approaches to crystallisation.
Dishman bought Carbogen Amcis from chemical company Solutia in 2006 in order to bridge the gap between its early-stage synthesis and large-scale manufacturing capabilities and get a foothold in the premium HPAPI manufacturing sector.
Since then, Dishman has continued to add to its HPAPI capacity, opening a kilo-scale manufacturing facility in the Netherlands last November.
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