Kemwell expands Swedish production unit
pharmafile | June 17, 2010 | News story | Manufacturing and Production | Kemwell, contract manufacturing
Indian contract manufacturer Kemwell has doubled production capacity at its facility in Sweden in order to help it serve customers in Europe, the US and Japan.
Its Swedish subsidiary Kemwell AB was set up in 2006 after the parent company’s acquisition of a manufacturing facility from Pfizer, marking the Indian firm’s first foray into the EU market. At the same time, the contract manufacturing organisation (CMO) secured a long-term contract to make certain Pfizer compounds.
Now, the CMO has upgraded the production capacity of the plant in Uppsala from 16,000 to 31,000 sq. m., increasing its ability to make solid and semi-solid dosage forms – such as tablets and suppositories – but also allowing it to expand into new product types such as capsules.
The output of the facility rises from around 1 billion to 4 billion dosage units a year, according to Kemwell, which expects production in the new production suites to start during 2010.
“The new facility will be characterised by a high degree of automation and flexibility in order to satisfy the high demands of existing and future clients within the pharmaceutical business,” said Kemwell’s chief executive Agneta Bergvall.
The CMO has also been expanding its Indian facilities of late, adding a new 15,000 sq.m. solid dosage facility and 11,000 sq.m. liquid dose production unit in Bangalore.
Kemwell has its sights set on building capabilities in biologic drugs too, and is currently constructing a 15,000 sq.m. mammalian and microbial production, bioprocessing and freeze-drying unit in Bangalore which is due to open in 2011. The plant will manufacture biologics at a scale suitable for preclinical and clinical development.
Meanwhile, the investments in production is being backed up by an expansion in Kemwell’s analytical capacity, particularly for method development and stability studies, as well as re-analysis of products for the EU market but manufactured outside EU, said Leo Fällgren, the firm’s manager of business development.
Phil Taylor
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