A week after US contract research organisation Pharmaceutical Product Development (PPD) opened a new GMP laboratory at its facility in Athlone, Ireland, the company has completed an expansion of its clinical supplies facility at the same plant.
The company has doubled its packaging warehousing capabilities and quadrupled its distribution services after more than tripling the size of its clinical supplies facility in Ireland as part of its aim to expand its global depot network.
The facility now features 20,000ft2 of space to store, package and label the clinical trial products that the company produces for its clients.
'The expansion of our clinical supplies facility in Athlone represents an important investment in the continued growth of our global operations,' said Susan Atkinson, Senior Vice President of Global Biometrics at PPD.
'Our ability to expand our support of clinical trials enables us to meet our clients’ growing demand for these services in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. This strategic location makes it operationally and financially efficient to ship supplies to any of those countries, often directly to investigative sites, which can result in faster turnaround at lower cost for our clients, and more efficient and effective operations for PPD.'
The company’s clinical supplies services and supply chain management are complemented by qualified person (QP) staff who also offer advice on European Union good manufacturing practices (GMP) compliance, particularly related to investigational medicinal products and the auditing of third parties.
The Athlone operation also provides a wide variety of ancillary supplies, such as syringes, IV pumps and other machinery needed by investigative sites.
The facility serves as PPD’s European hub for clinical supplies, and is one of five depots the company maintains around the world; China, Russia, South Africa and Ukraine are the others.
In total, PPD’s operations in the Athlone Business and Technology Park amount to nearly 50,000ft2, of which approximately 18,000ft2 is dedicated to the new GMP laboratory.
