Athenex, a pharmaceutical company specializing in the discovery, development and commercialization of cancer therapies, has voluntarily suspended production activities at its active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) plant in China.  

The company’s suspension of production at its API plant in Chongqing, China followed incidents at other chemical plants in other provinces of China in March and April of 2019, which led to further industry-wide plant inspections for production safety in China.

The company said that its voluntary temporary suspension occurred last month (May 2019) and that it expects to have a resolution by the end of the third quarter of 2019, subject to inspection and evaluation by the Department of Emergency Management of Chongqing. Athenex says it plans to continue selling existing API inventories through at least the third quarter of 2019. The company says it has sufficient API inventory for ongoing and short-term planned clinical studies as well as for its registration activities for late-stage clinical products. In addition, the company says it is in the process of working with its secondary suppliers and securing additional suppliers subject to its needs as part of normal course supply-chain activities.

The company says that a build-out of its new API plant in Chongqing is near completion, and the plant is expected to commence operations in the first half of 2020.

Source: Athenex