Aesica Pharmaceutical's recent acquisition of a second manufacturing site in North London from Merck and Co. has brought new technology and expertise to the company.
Aesica's headquarters remain at its original 90-acre facility in Cramlington, Northumberland, where it has two multi-product plants and purpose-built technical development facilities. The new site adds a further three manufacturing plants, including a potent manufacturing facility with a capacity of around 7 tonnes a year and a newly commissioned API manufacturing facility with a capacity in excess of 200 tonnes/year.
New technologies include:
- High pressure hydrogenation;
- HF800 Heinkel centrifuges (Hastelloy);
- Broadbent centrifuges (Hastelloy and stainless steel);
- Rotary dryers with pack off facilities by Stott;
- Alpine mill and Fitz mill;
- On-line PAT equipment for process control and monitoring including Lasentec, NIR and RI;
- Powder containment through glove boxes and buck valves;
- DCS systems by Emerson (Delta V and DVOP); and
- Product discharge areas with full temperature and humidity control and monitoring
The new site also contains a technical centre with an ECL4 laboratory in which the company plans to further expand its technical development capabilities to include the process development and scale-up of cytotoxic compounds.