AZ opens
AstraZeneca has opened a new £26m (US$37.8m) tablets expansion facility at its site in Macclesfield in the UK. The facility will double previous granulation capacity for tablet formulations produced at Macclesfield, which is AstraZeneca's second largest manufacturing site worldwide. One of its initial roles is in the manufacture of Seroquel (quetiapine) for the treatment of schizophrenia.
The new facility is part of a major investment programme at Macclesfield, totalling £77m ($112m), to refurbish and remodel production facilities to meet rising demand. Other projects include new packaging facilities for several other significant products in the AstraZeneca portfolio. Almost 20 projects are involved in the programme, which has been completed five months ahead of schedule.
Dr Barrie Thorpe, executive vice president, AstraZeneca Operations, said: 'This is another major project forming part of the company's ongoing programme to provide manufacturing facilities that will enable us to deliver important medicines to customers worldwide in the right quantities and at the right time.'
Sales of quetiapine rose by 67% between 2001 and 2002. Recently NICE (the UK's National Institute for Clinical Excellence) recommended that atypical antipsychotics, such as quetiapine should be considered as a first line treatment of choice for individuals with newly diagnosed schizophrenia and those patients currently experiencing, or who have previously experienced, unacceptable side-effects on the older medications.
• Meanwhile Rhodia ChiRex, the integrated pharmaceutical outsourcing company, has dedicated its Orion plant to the production of an intermediate for one of AstraZeneca's development products. Orion is a multi-purpose cGMP facility, operating alongside Rhodia ChiRex's general purpose plant on a 20-acre site in a manufacturing complex shared with Aventis at Holmes Chapel in the UK.
Orion is equipped with hastelloy, stainless steel and glass-lined reactors with capacities as large as 8,000 litres. The plant's design is based on four streams, suited to the production of late stage pharmaceuticals and APIs.