Capsugel unveils new spray-dried dispersion manufacturing facility
Development significantly expands the company’s commercial manufacturing capability at its Bend (Oregon, USA) site
Capsugel has completed the construction of a new pharmaceutical spray-dried dispersion (SDD) commercial manufacturing facility at its site in Bend (Oregon, USA). The completion represents the final phase of a two-year, US$25m investment to expand Capsugel’s commercial SDD capability at the site.
With the expansion complete, Capsugel has the largest integrated pharmaceutical SDD technology capability in North America. ‘This investment reflects Capsugel’s strategy to leverage our science- and engineering-based expertise to enable innovative dosage forms that improve the lives of patients and consumers,’ said Amit Patel, President, Capsugel Dosage Form Solutions. ‘Capsugel continues to expand its capacity and capabilities to support a growing pipeline of customer projects from early stage development all the way through to late-stage clinical and commercial manufacture.’
Bend Research, a division of Capsugel Dosage Form Solutions, has been involved with SDD technology for two decades has formulated more than 1000 compounds. Since acquiring Bend Research, Capsugel has added two commercial-scale spray dryers, bringing the total number of commercial-scale units on its Bend campus to three.
This expansion adds to Capsugel’s extensive infrastructure and industry leading science in preclinical and early clinical development to provide an integrated offering for feasibility, development, late-stage clinical and commercial manufacture of spray-dried drug product intermediates.
The new units use innovative dryer design and manufacturing plant technology to offer a significantly improved product throughput that minimises cycle times and maximises productivity. The newest unit, which is designed to accommodate high-potency compounds, will become fully operational later this year.
‘We have taken the R&D competencies on which Bend Research has built its reputation and extended them to commercial manufacture, which is very exciting,’ said Jim Nightingale, MD of Bend Research. ‘With our improved throughput levels, high-potency capabilities and a commercial facility co-located with R&D, we are positioning ourselves as a partner of choice for pharmaceutical customers. As a result, we are collaborating with customers to advance an ever-widening range of promising molecules.’
