Cambrex, an East Rutherford, New Jersey-based contract manufacturer of small-molecule active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), plans to begin a $5-million expansion of laboratory facilities at its site in Karlskoga, Sweden.  

The company is planning the expansion to increase capability and capacity for process development and scale-up, handling of potent substances, crystallization studies, and solid-phase characterization. Construction work on the three-story, 600-square-meter building will begin at the end of the second quarter of 2018 with completion due in the second quarter of 2019.

The expansion will create space for a new technical laboratory with walk-in hoods for large-scale laboratory syntheses up to 10 liters, where engineers and chemists will undertake technology transfer studies. The new investment is also expected to enable handling of potent substances at a large laboratory scale as well as allow high-pressure reactions and parallel synthesis for API route scouting and development.

In addition to the technical laboratory, the expansion will feature two analytical development and quality-control laboratories and additional office space for 12 additional scientists and chemists, which would bring the total headcount to 60.

In 2017, Cambrex upgraded its continuous-flow capabilities in Karlskoga with a dedicated commercial-scale unit that is capable of producing multiple metric tons of high-purity API intermediates per annum. The company also completed the installation of multiple continuous-flow reactor platforms at its process-development facility in High Point, North Carolina.

Source: Cambrex